My new neighbor is very clever.

[chknltl]

54. re. a lesson for politicians, Ping Pong Diplomacy.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_Pong_Diplomacy#section_1O.

Here is a snippet from one encounter under the Ping Pong Diplomacy article over in Wiki:

...."The events leading up to the encounter began when Glenn Cowan missed his team bus one afternoon after his practice in Nagoya during the 31st World Table Tennis Championship. Cowan had been practicing for 15 minutes with the Chinese player, Liang Geliang, when a Japanese official came and wanted to close the training area. As Cowan looked in vain for his team bus, a Chinese player waved to him to get on his Chinese team bus. Moments after his casual talking through an interpreter to the Chinese players, Zhuang Zedong came up from his back seat to greet him and presented him with a silk-screen portrait of Huangshan Mountains, a famous product from Hangzhou. Cowan wanted to give something back, but all he could find from his bag was a comb. The American hesitantly replied, "I can't give you a comb. I wish I could give you something, but I can't." When it was time for them to get off the bus, hordes of photographers and journalists were waiting for them. In the political climate of the 1960s, the sight of an athlete of Communist China with an athlete of the United States was sure to garner attention. Glenn Cowan later bought a T-shirt with a red, white and blue, peace emblem flag and the words "Let It Be, which he presented to Zhuang Zedong at another chance meeting."

The entire story about Ping Pong Diplomacy is a worthy read for those unfamiliar with this bit of world history.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_Pong_Diplomacy#section_1O.