Commentary On April 10, Shanghai held an opening ceremony for a series of activities commemorating the 50th anniversary of ping-pong diplomacy, when the U.S. table tennis team visited Communist China for the first time in 1971. Due to the current stalemate in bilateral relations, this event came off as awkward. On the Chinese side, the CCP has intensified its incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, dispatched the aircraft carrier Liaoning for naval training in the eastern waters off Taiwan, directly provoking the U.S. military. On the United States side, the Biden administration imposed new scientific and technology sanctions on the CCP; the U.S. State Department further eased restrictions on diplomatic exchanges with Taiwan; the “Strategic Competition Act of 2021” has been introduced in the Senate against the CCP; the U.S. Navy’s high-profile exercises in the South China Sea, etc. These are signals of tensions between the regime and the United …