A discourse on China's sports system

In China, sports is a good barometer of national change. In the 1970s, "ping pong diplomacy" was partly responsible for China's opening-up policy. In the 1980s, China's sports system was one of the first to implement economic reform with its incentive system. Therefore, it is interesting to see what is happening now in China's sports system as a measure of what kind of social and political changes could be seen in the country in the near future.

The reform of China's State-supported sports system should be on the agenda of the 12th Five Year Plan (2011-2015). For more than a decade, there has been a debate in China's sports circles about whether the pursuit of Olympic medals should be downgraded and more government effort and funding devoted to school sports and popular sports.

When Beijing won the bid to stage the 2008 Olympic Games it ensured that the pursuit of medals would continue to enable China to put up a good show as the Games' host, and a serious discussion over reform was postponed.