IS TODAY’S CHINA A SPORTS POWER?

China, which used to be deemed backward and powerless by other countries, started to
emerge and became a power figure in the international community. In today’s world, in
particular the world of the 21st century, China is undoubtedly recognised as an economic and
political power. It is however still disputable whether China can be called a sports power.
This essay will argue that, despite the recent rapid development of sport in China, it is yet to
claim this title regarding to the current scenario.

One of the fundamental indications of a nation’s sports power is its participation in and
organisation of international sports events. Acclaimed worldwide for its success in the 2008
Beijing Olympics, China gained international attention and recognition in light of its display
of strength and efforts as the host of the Games. Undeniably, the 2008 Beijing Olympics was
in general a well-organised sports event, earning praises such as a ‘resounding success’ from
President of IOC Jacques Rogge1 and a ‘great victory of Chinese people’ from Liu Qi, the
Chairman of the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee.2

On the other hand, it is identically solid the fact that China does not have as many
experiences in holding such worldwide-scale sports games as the traditional sports powers
do. The United States have hosted four Summer Olympic Games in 1904, 1932, 1984 and
1996, topping the chart of countries by the number of the Games hosted. The United
Kingdom ranks the second as the host for the Games three times, followed by countries such
as France and Japan with the two-time records. These figures do not even show their
experiences in hosting the Winter Olympic Games, of which China has none. They are
relatively in a supreme position for not only how many times but also how long since they
have had such experiences. The recent one-shot success may give China rewards and
prestige, but it can hardly place this inexperienced country in the same position with those
widely recognised sports powers having long history of sports strength.

                                                                                                               
1
International Olympic Committee, Final Report of the IOC Coordination Commission for the Games of the
XXIX Olympiad – Beijing 2008, January 2010.
2
Fan, Hong, “Epilogue: Branding China: The Beijing Olympics and Beyond,” The International Journal of the
History of Sport 27 (September-October 2010): 2642, assessed 25 February, 2014, doi:
10.1080/09523367.2010.521357.

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Apart from the Olympic games, China is also considered weak in establishing international
major specialised sports events. Australia, for instance, is famous for its Australian Open
tennis tournament and Australian Open of Surfing. The US has even a larger variety of
renowned sports games, including the National Basketball Association (NBA) games and the
Super Bowl American football games. These events enjoy global sensation and endorsement,
and each attracts thousands of spectators every year. Meanwhile, although China have
organised a few international sports tournaments like the Shenzhen Open and China
International Challenge badminton tournament, they all remain far less renowned and popular
than the other sports powers’ well-established sports events. Being still in the early stage of
developing international specialised sports events, China lacks such a quality to be entitled to
the name of a ‘sports power’.

Another argument for claiming China to be a sports power may be its remarkable
achievement in international sports games. It is true that the sports strength of today’s China
is hugely evidenced by its outstanding results in particularly the Olympic games. In the 2008
and 2012 Olympics, China surpassed the other countries and ranked the first for the number
of gold medals won. It is seen as a national pride for China to have defeated the US, the
superpower in sport.3

Nevertheless it is worth noticing that China falls far behind in its performance in the Olympic
games with its size of population taken into consideration. As statistician at Imperial College,
London, Christoforos Anagnostopoulous pointed out, statistics of medal per capita shed light
on factors like the size of the pool of potential athletes to choose from.4 It can therefore
objectively reflect the country’s sports strength disregarding the pre-determinant of human
resources. Actually, on the charts of total medals per capita, China ranked 68th in 2008
Olympics5, and even 73rd in 2012 Olympics.6 It is clear that China’s sports achievement is not
in proportion to its available human resources, and it likely attributes to the relative
inefficiency of China in discovering and nurturing potential medallists than other higher-
ranked nations such as New Zealand and Norway.
                                                                                                               
3
“Asia: All that gold does not glitter; Sports in China,” The Economist, 23 August, 2008, 35.
4
Rogers, Simon, “Olympic 2012: the alternative medals table,” The Guardian, 12 August, 2012, accessed 25
February, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/sport/datablog/2012/jul/30/olympics-2012-alternative-medal-
table.
5
“Olympic Medals per Capita,” last modified 23 February, 2014, http://www.medalspercapita.com/#medals-
per-capita:2008.
6
Rogers, “Olympic 2012.”

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Besides, China’s sports reputation has been adversely affected by its controversial and
illegitimate practice, and it largely reduces the international recognition of China being a
sports power. The national football team has a long troubled history of accusations of
corruption. In the summer of 2013 their heavy defeat to Thailand, which ranked 47 places
lower than China by Fifa, led to doubts for their match fixing and the significant dropping of
their world ranking. 7 A number of people formerly related to the Chinese Football
Association, including two former heads, were convicted for taking bribes and sentenced to
imprisonment as well in 2012.8 In addition, the Chinese gymnastics team has been challenged
for the underage gymnast scandal, and lately they were ordered to return the bronze medal for
the women’s team event in 2000 Sydney Olympic, as one of the team members Dong
Fangxia was found underage when competing in the games.9 In spite of the glamorous
performance of China’s sport in recent years, the negative news on the practice of China’s
sports teams proves that the nation is still lagging behind in finding values in sportsmanship
and fair play. It shows to the world its obsession with self-interest or championship and its
lack of emphasis on securing moral standards. This renders China to be immature enough in
sports development to be called as a sports power.

Other than the national team’s performance, a few individual Chinese athletes, for example,
Yao Ming and Li Na, have achieved excellence and shone on the international stage. They
have become the sports stars and foreign ambassadors for Chinese athletes. Their success is
somehow seen as the proof for the claim of China’s being a sports power.

Such a claim, however, neglects the fact that many of them were made famous after going
outwards from national sports team training. The aforementioned examples exactly illustrate
this point. Yao Ming earned fame after being recruited into the Houston Rockets as the first
Chinese and Asian player in the NBA, where provided him with the platform to polish his
skills and become a renowned professional basketball player.10 Li Na, gaining little success
                                                                                                               
7
Boehler, Patrick, “China players accused of corruption after heavy defeat against Thailand,” South China
Morning Post, 29 August, 2013, accessed 25 February, 2014,
http://www.scmp.com/sport/china/article/1262784/china-players-accused-corruption-after-heavy-defeat-against-
thailand.
8
Boehler, “China players accused of corruption.”
9
The Guardian Agencies, “China's gymnasts ordered to return Sydney Olympic bronze,” The Guardian, 29
April, 2010, accessed 25 February, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2010/apr/29/china-gymastics-
sydney-olympic-bronze.
10
Bucher, Ric and Ming Yao, Yao: A Life in Two Worlds, New York: Miramax Books, 2004.

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before quitting the national team, started the ‘fly alone’ policy and her own team with
specialists from different countries.11 Shortly after, she won the 2011 French Open and the
2013 Australian Open, becoming the current highest-ranked Asian tennis player. It can be
observed that these famous individual Chinese athletes gained their success in the situation
where they were not funded or trained by their country. It even further displays that China
does not have the facilities and systems that allow them to develop and have the same
opportunity of achievement in their home country, as Lao and Li did not enjoy such success
until going out of the Chinese sports training system.

In addition, China’s weakness in national sports development also marks its distance from the
entitlement of being a sports power. There is little security provided for national team
athletes. They receive limited rewards for their outstanding performance, since they are
required to pay more than 60% of their earnings to the sports government bodies.12Cases like
the indifferent attitude of the Chinese government towards taking care of Sang Lan’s
paralysis also show this.13 Also, the brutal training environment for potential athletes has
been under criticism of the foreign media. An article in Time Magazine depicts that in most
Chinese sports schools, ‘suffering is considered integral to the athletic experience.’14 The
setback of China’s sports training system in providing a healthy and secured environment for
athletes makes it far from the standards agreed by the international sports community,
resulting in the inability of China to be qualified as a sports power.

With the focus on sports development as a strategy of increasing national ‘soft power’, China
has seen the unprecedented speed in such advancement in itself. While still striving to be
recognized as a sports power, China is equipping itself with the qualities and approaching the
recognition. It is believed that in the near future China will be qualified to stand among the
other sports powers in the world.

                                                                                                               
11
〈李娜和國家是怎樣被對立的〉, Sohu News, 27 January, 2014, assessed 25 February, 2014,
http://news.sohu.com/s2014/dianji-1318/.
12
Chen, Xiaoni and Jamie FlorCruz, “Li Na: China's tennis rebel is people's idol,” CNN, 7 June, 2011, assessed
25 February, 2014, http://edition.cnn.com/2011/SPORT/tennis/06/03/china.li.na/.
13
〈桑蘭自曝與體操隊矛盾 發洩情緒疑為打官司鋪墊〉, China News, 6 August, 2010, assessed 25
February, 2014, http://www.chinanews.com/ty/2010/08-06/2450324.shtml.
14
Beech, Hannah, “Crazy for Gold,” Time, 23 June, 2008.

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Bibliography

International Olympic Committee. Final Report of the IOC Coordination Commission for the
Games of the XXIX Olympiad – Beijing 2008. January 2010.

Fan, Hong. “Epilogue: Branding China: The Beijing Olympics and Beyond.” The
International Journal of the History of Sport 27 (September-October 2010): 2642.
Assessed 25 February, 2014. doi: 10.1080/09523367.2010.521357.

“Asia: All that gold does not glitter; Sports in China.” The Economist, 23 August, 2008.

Rogers, Simon. “Olympic 2012: the alternative medals table.” The Guardian, 12 August,
2012. Accessed 25 February, 2014.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/datablog/2012/jul/30/olympics-2012-alternative-
medal-table.

“Olympic Medals per Capita.” Last modified 23 February, 2014.

http://www.medalspercapita.com/#medals-per-capita:2008.

Boehler, Patrick. “China players accused of corruption after heavy defeat against Thailand.”
South China Morning Post, 29 August, 2013. Accessed 25 February, 2014.
http://www.scmp.com/sport/china/article/1262784/china-players-accused-corruption-
after-heavy-defeat-against-thailand.

The Guardian Agencies. “China's gymnasts ordered to return Sydney Olympic bronze.” The
Guardian, 29 April, 2010. Accessed 25 February, 2014.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2010/apr/29/china-gymastics-sydney-olympic-bronze.

Bucher, Ric and Ming Yao. Yao: A Life in Two Worlds. New York: Miramax Books, 2004.

〈李娜和國家是怎樣被對立的〉. Sohu News, 27 January, 2014. Assessed 25 February,

2014. http://news.sohu.com/s2014/dianji-1318/.

Chen, Xiaoni and Jamie FlorCruz. “Li Na: China's tennis rebel is people's idol.” CNN, 7 June,
2011. Assessed 25 February, 2014.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/SPORT/tennis/06/03/china.li.na/.

〈桑蘭自曝與體操隊矛盾 發洩情緒疑為打官司鋪墊〉. China News, 6 August, 2010.

Assessed 25 February, 2014. http://www.chinanews.com/ty/2010/08-06/2450324.shtml.

Beech, Hannah. “Crazy for Gold.” Time, 23 June, 2008.

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