China: The World Leader of Sports II
Dr. Syed Mehboob
Senior Business and Political Analyst
Promoting sports and healthy activities is among the top priorities of China. Chinese leadership believes that a healthy nation is a developed nation, and sports are an integral part of healthy activities. China believes in sportsmanship, and it has the same behavior in global politics. Like sports, China believes in healthy, positive competition. China continuously learn from the world, and the world, especially developing countries should learn from China.
Besides, the rapid development of the sports industry has added to China's sporting prowess, with the strengthening of supply-side structural reform and optimization of related policies not only accelerating the high-quality development of the sports industry but also helping boost consumption and economic growth. According to National Bureau of Statistics data, China's sports industry was worth 2.73 trillion yuan ($380.49 billion) in 2020, with its added value being 1.07 trillion yuan. The gradual but steady integration of the sports, tourism, culture, education, and elder-care industries has been stimulating domestic demand, prompting many private enterprises to enter the sports sector and make contributions to China's economy.
New technology trends such as 5G, augmented reality, and 8K have been playing vital roles in shaping the sports industry, which is concentrated in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta region, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle. Also, in the past 10 years, Chinese teams and athletes have reached notable milestones. For example, the Chinese women's volleyball team won the gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016, reclaiming the title 12 years after the Athens Games in 2004. China also lifted the Women's Volleyball World Cup with 11 straight wins in 2019. The spirit of the Chinese women's volleyball team transcends generations and shows the Chinese athletes' spirit of fighting for the glory of the motherland in the new era. Moreover, the Chinese mountaineering team completed the task of measuring the height of Qomolangma (Mount Everest) in 2020, which marked the 60th anniversary of the first successful Chinese expedition to Qomolangma from the Chinese side. That the team members stayed at the summit for a record 150 minutes to calibrate the mountain's height by using a range of new technologies developed by Chinese researchers was in itself a remarkable achievement.
And the success of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games demonstrated the organizing capability of the Chinese authorities and the sportsmanship spirit of Chinese athletes who have always risen to challenges, pursued excellence, and upheld the Olympic motto. The 2022 Winter Games also showcased a prosperous and open China.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is a big fan of football. He has a keen desire to promote football in China. For several years now, football schools have been built up across China, and several football stars and coaches have followed the call of President Xi Jinping and are busy promoting football in China. China successfully hosted the Summer Olympics in 2008, and Beijing has been awarded the right to host the 2022 Winter Games. The first Asian tennis player to win such an honor, Zheng’s path to success was a source of motivation for Chinese women.
In the 76 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the nation's sports industry has evolved from modest beginnings to a major player. From Olympic victories to a thriving sports culture, China's achievements highlight the country's growth and commitment to excellence. This progress reflects not just the athletes' success, but the broader strength and ambition of the nation.
China won its first Olympic gold medal in Los Angeles in 1984, thanks to Xu Haifeng's shooting prowess, and crossed the 300-gold-medal mark in Paris. After competing against developed countries in 11 Olympics, China has become one of the leading medal-winning countries at the Games. These achievements have not only reinforced China's self-belief but also showcased the great achievements it has made since launching reform and opening-up. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, China has been trying to integrate the resource mobilizing system with the market mechanism, giving proportionate play to the government, market, and society, while developing competitive sports. The development of competitive sports promotes recreational sports and the sports industry, forming a virtuous circle of sports development. Participating in and watching high-level sports events have become part of Chinese people's lives. For example, marathons have become increasingly popular in China in recent years, with more than 120 Chinese amateur marathoners competing in the Olympic marathon in Paris. It was the first time in history that the public was invited to participate in an Olympic discipline. Apart from watching the Olympics on TV at home, many Chinese people also watched the Games on big screens, thanks to one of China's leading film companies partnering with State broadcaster CCTV to relay live broadcasts of the Paris Games in cinemas across the country. Also, the sales of sports products in China, especially those with"2024 Paris Olympics" prints, and the national team's jerseys, surged during the Games. The booking of sports venues and the sales of home appliances, audio equipment, and snacks, too, increased. The "Olympic economy" unleashed the potential of many sectors, showing that sports had become a facilitator of socioeconomic development. As such, the role of sports should be given full play in the advancement of Chinese modernization. First, sports should help people lead a better life. Sports can improve the physical and mental health of people, increase their adaptability capacity, and promote social interaction. China has been using the national fitness campaign as a strategy since 2014 to improve the physical health of the people, reflecting the central leadership's commitment to put people and their health first. The country has established a relatively sound public service system for promoting sports and physical fitness in both rural and urban areas. Thanks to increasing investments in the sports sector, mass sports are becoming more diverse, the per capita sports venue area has kept increasing, and more people are becoming competent and enthusiastic enough to play competitive sports and/or engage in fitness activities. The State Council issued a circular on Sept 2, outlining the plan to develop China into a leading sports power. According to the circular, people who often take exercise should account for over 45 percent of the population by 2035; China should become a modern leading sports socialist country by 2050, and its people’s physical fitness, comprehensive levels, and global influence in sports should be ranked near the top globally. To achieve these goals, the circular set major tasks in five aspects, including national fitness, athletics, sports industry, sports culture and sports exchange.
In order to advance the national fitness campaign, effort should be made to improve the public service system, give play to the role of the State Council’s joint ministerial conference on national fitness and build joint meeting mechanisms on national fitness at the local government level.
Coordinated work is also required to build venues and facilities for national fitness, including city greenways, sports parks, community squares for entertainment and sports and places for football and winter sports. To that end, empty rooms and underground spaces in cities should be utilized properly.
People’s health should be put at the core of the campaign, with national fitness plans to be formulated and implemented and scientific fitness knowledge and methods to be disseminated. Sports activities should be encouraged in key groups, including teenagers, the elderly, farmers and the disabled, and information technologies such as IoT and cloud computing should be applied to obtain a smart development of national fitness. Athletics will also get a boost through allowing private organizations to enter the sports industry, promoting football, basketball, and volleyball and supporting the development of vocational sports. The circular also calls on efforts to build a modern sports industry system through building a complete sports industry chain, accelerating the integrated development of sports and its related industries, and promoting the coordinated development of regional sports industries. In 2025, China’s professional sports industry is at around 2,000 billion yuan, equivalent to US$290 billion.
China has won 303 gold medals at the Summer Olympics and 23 gold medals at the Winter Olympics since its return in 1984, with its best-ever performance occurring at the 2024 Paris Olympics with 40 gold medals. China’s overall Olympic record is 325 gold medals, 258 silver medals, and 303 bronze medals as of 2025. Their dominance is evident in sports like diving, gymnastics, weightlifting, and table tennis. In the 2024 Paris Olympics, China achieved 40 gold, 27 silver, and 24 bronze medals. As of 2024, China has finished at 1st place in the Summer Olympics once, in 2nd place four times, and in 3rd place twice. It has won a total of 325 gold medals, 258 silver medals, and 221 bronze medals over the course of 12 Olympic Games.
Like other sectors, China is also leading in sports, and it is getting a position of the world’s SPORT LEADER.
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