Leland Lazarus, a former U.S. Foreign Service officer, is the associate director for national security at Florida International University’s Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy.

Videos of “village basketball” going viral on Chinese social media show hundreds of spectators packed around makeshift courts to watch locals dribble, dunk and sink three-point shots. This rural game, which seems to have sprung up organically (with no central government planning), is attracting global attention. Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler recently traveled to China to take in a game.

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It makes you wonder: Could basketball become the 21st-century version of ping-pong diplomacy? That was sparked by an encounter at the 1971 World Table Tennis Championship in Japan, when American player Glenn Cowan missed his bus and had to ride with the Chinese team. He shook hands with three-time world champion Zhuang Zedong, and, shortly afterward, the U.S. team was invited to play exhibition matches in China, which in turn paved the way for President Richard M. Nixon’s visit to Beijing the following year.

Personal encounters among people of different cultures build trust and reduce misunderstanding. Unfortunately, there are fewer opportunities for citizen diplomacy between the United States and China. Since 2019, the number of American tourists traveling to China has plummeted, driven partly by the pandemic and partly by Americans’ historically high negative views of that country.

To be sure, some longstanding U.S.-China academic exchanges such as the Schwarzman Scholars and the Hopkins-Nanjing Center still operate in China. But the Fulbright Program, one of this country’s premier international exchanges, remains suspended in China. U.S. universities are reevaluating erstwhile academic partnerships with Chinese counterparts, as Florida and other states stand tough on China. And last month’s indictments of two Chinese American sailors who allegedly shared sensitive military information with Chinese spies have sparked a debate across federal agencies: Is it possible to welcome Chinese people and also safeguard U.S. national security?

In China, citizens are constantly hearing their government’s narrative that the United States is trying to stop China’s rise, and it’s having an effect. In recent years, racism against Black people has also flourished on Chinese social media.

Clearly, when people from different countries never meet and learn about each other’s culture, history and language, they are prone to demonize each other. This makes it easier for hard-liners in government to ratchet up anti-foreign rhetoric, pushing misunderstanding toward conflict.

Both the Biden and Trump administrations have correctly distinguished between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people. And recent visits by high-level U.S. officials demonstrate an ongoing attempt to maintain a relationship, even as disagreements over military and technology issues heat up.

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Basketball could provide some needed common ground. While serving as a U.S. diplomat in China years ago, I saw firsthand the effects of sports diplomacy, as Chinese youths raved about players such as Kobe Bryant. (I was often mistaken for Bryant on the street — until people saw me play basketball.)

It’s true that the sport has been tainted by U.S.-China tensions. In 2019, the Chinese government suspended ties with the Houston Rockets after the team’s general manager supported Hong Kong pro-democracy protests; Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai has been accused of kowtowing to Beijing to preserve the NBA’s multibillion-dollar business in China.

But these instances of friction can be overcome; basketball can still build bridges between U.S. and Chinese youths. Chinese village players could be invited to participate in basketball camps in U.S. cities, and urban American players could spend summers playing in rural China. Imagine a young Steph Curry shooting threes on a clay court in Guilin, or a Yunnanese player learning a crossover at an outdoor basketball clinic in Chicago. Viral videos of rural hoops could demonstrate to Chinese and Americans alike that they need not be enemies.

American youths would see that many Chinese aren’t mindless drones who follow the Communist Party’s every whim. And Chinese kids would be exposed to American diversity.

An old Chinese saying holds that “the relationship between two countries is based on the affection between their people.” Perhaps two U.S. and Chinese players will soon become friends on a basketball court, then grow up to meet again at a negotiation table. Their shared experience will have laid a foundation for cooperation.

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