Jimmy Carter still committed to China

BEIJING, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter marked the 40th anniversary of "ping-pong diplomacy" with a visit to Beijing, calling it a "very historic moment."

Carter recalled his lifelong interest in the Chinese people started when he was 7 years old in Plains, Ga. He opened a package to find a model of a wooden Chinese junk from his seafaring uncle. He later traveled to China as a Navy submarine officer.

When Carter became president, he began normalizing relations with China, a process that started with the Nixon administration and so-called "ping-pong diplomacy."

"It was a very historic moment. But it was that breakthrough just with ping-pong players -- that is people-to-people -- that was really more important than the decisions of political leaders. And I think that is a stability that is going to prevail in the future," said Carter, who also is endorsing President Obama's "100,000 Strong" campaign -- to have 100,000 U.S. students studying in China in four years.

"We'll always have differences, with our cultural approaches and our political backgrounds, our ancient histories," he said. "But still, the ties that bind us together are much more important than any differences that might arise."