Abstract
This chapter continues the chronological assessment of Chinese sport and sport policy from reform up to the current moment. The new millennium in many ways represented a continuation of previous areas of development. The 2000s were a period of concerted growth for China that firmly established it as a global superpower by the end of the decade. However, after winning the rights to host the 2008 Olympic Games, the city of Beijing would become the epicenter for a national push for success. Not only was the Chinese government interested in achieving at a high level on the field of competition, it was also focused on utilizing the games as a platform for a projection of China as a twenty-first-century superpower.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
In his assessment of Chinese Olympic sport policy, Morris (2008) suggests: “Thus, over the last century, sport in China has served as a marker of political and social power, but it has also represented a profound national anxiety” (p. 25).
- 2.
The era of rapid economic growth in China was concerted in the first decade of the new millennium; however, this capped a process of growth that really started in a nascent form during the initial policy changes that are referred to collectively as ‘reform’ following the death of Mao in 1976. Under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, the introduction of socialist market policies would create the basis for economic development and growth. As Nugent and Lu (2021) suggest, “In the past four decades, the world has witnessed an unprecedented economic growth miracle in China, its GDP per capita surging from $326 in 1979 to $7753 in 2018 (both expressed at constant prices of 2010) according to the World Bank’s World Development Indicators. The dramatic rise of its real GDP per capita has induced China to further exercise its economic power in the global economy” (p. 1).
- 3.
At the time of writing this book, Xi Jinping is in an election year. While the one-party state does not hold national elections, the Chinese Communist Party does select its leadership through a complex internal process that becomes a de facto selection of China’s national leader. Xi Jinping is coming to the end of a ten-year period of power, the usual timeline for when leadership in the party would be replaced. With changes in policy and procedure, Xi had appeared to clear the way for his extended leadership beyond this year; however, his handling of COVID-19 responses has pushed some to consider standing in opposition to his status as leader. Certainly, the continuation of Xi Jinping in power or not will have important impacts on the nation and sport policy in China. Whether the end of the inter-Olympic period will mean a change in China more broadly may well be reinforced by the position of Xi within the party system come the end of 2022.
- 4.
In describing the approach of the 1984 Los Angeles games director Peter Ueberroth, Allison and Tomlinson (2017) state that “His policy was to pursue unashamedly the commercial possibilities for the Olympics which had been studiously eschewed in its previous history. He called the 1984 Games ‘the free enterprise games’ and the name stuck—they were, in fact boycotted by all of the European Communist countries except Romania. And despite much local opposition (including that of the Californian state legislature) as well as boycotts, the Games returned a profit of over a quarter of a billion dollars” (p. 96).
- 5.
Hu and Henry (2017) provide a definition for Zhuanye Sport around two key elements: “Bao (2009, p. 14) cites two defining features differentiating it from professional sport: (a) Zhuanye athletes receive payment or subsidies from government while professional athletes are mainly paid by their employer (normally professional clubs) or sponsors; and (b) Zhuanye athletes normally do not have full ownership of their own human-capital, which means that their role is, in effect, that of a ‘sporting civil servant’” (p. 532).
- 6.
For an in-depth discussion of gender in China across several eras, the edited volume Chinese Femininities: Chinese Masculinities (Brownell & Wasserstrom, 2002) is a key text.
Works Cited
Allison, L., & Tomlinson, A. (2017). Understanding International Sport Organisations: Principles, Power and Possibilities. Routledge.
Backer, L. C. (2019). China’s Social Credit System: Data-Driven Governance for a ‘New Era’. Current History, 118(809), 209–214.
Brownell, S. (2008). Beijing’s Games: What the Olympics Mean to China. Rowan & Littlefield.
Brownell, S., & Wasserstrom, J. N. (2002). Chinese Femininities, Chinese Masculinities: A Reader. University of California Press.
Chu, M. P. (2018). China’s Decisiveness in Olympic Bids: Leveraging International Sporting Mega-Events to Improve Beijing’s Odds of Success. The International Journal of the History of Sport, 35(12–13), 1306–1324.
Dong, J., & Mangan, J. A. (2008). Olympic Aspirations: Chinese Women on Top—Considerations and Consequences. The International Journal of the History of Sport, 25(7), 779–806.
Dyerson, M. (2012). World Harmony or an Athletic ‘Clash of Civilizations’? The Beijing Olympic Spectacle, BMX Bicycles and the American Contours of Globalisation. The International Journal of the History of Sport, 29(9), 1231–1242.
Fan, H., & Fu, Z. (2012). Sport in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). The International Journal of the History of Sport, 29(1), 53–73.
Houlihan, B., Tan, T.-C., & Green, M. (2010). Policy Transfer and Learning From the West: Elite Basketball Development in the People’s Republic of China. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 34(1), 4–28.
Hu, X., & Henry, I. (2017). Reform and Maintenance of Juguo Tizhi: Governmental Management Discourse of Chinese Elite Sport. European Sport Management Quarterly, 17(4), 531–553.
Manzenreiter, W. (2010). The Beijing Games in the Western Imagination of China: The Weak Power of Soft Power. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 34(1), 29–48.
Morris, A. (2008). “How Could Anyone Respect Us?”: A Century of Olympic Consciousness and National Anxiety in China. The Brown Journal of World Affairs, 14(2), 25–39.
Nugent, J. B., & Lu, J. (2021). China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment in the Belt and Road Initiative: What Are the Motives for Chinese Firms to Invest? China Economic Review, 68, 1–28.
Riordan, J., & Dong, J. (1996). Chinese Women and Sport: Success, Sexuality and Suspicion. The China Quarterly, 145, 130–152.
Rowe, D. (2012). Mediating the Asian Olympics: The Summer Games—Image Projection and Gaze Reception. The International Journal of the History of Sport, 29(16), 2231–2243.
Samatas, M. (2011). Surveillance in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008: A Comparison of the Olympic Surveillance Modalities and Legacies in Two Different Olympic Host Regimes. Urban Studies, 48(15), 3347–3366.
Sun, J., & Ye, L. (2010). Mega-events, Local Economies, and Global Status: What Happened Before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 133–165.
Tan, T. C., & Houlihan, B. (2012). Chinese Olympic Sport Policy: Managing the Impact of Globalisation. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 48(2), 131–152.
Tan, T.-C., Zheng, J., & Dickson, G. (2019). Policy Transfer in Elite Sport Development: The Case of Elite Swimming in China. European Sport Management Quarterly, 19(5), 645–665.
Xu, Q., & Kreshel, P. J. (2021). State Versus Professional: A Case Study of How Chinese New Media Construct Elite Female Athletes. International Journal of Sport Communication, (14), 131–150.
Zhang, L., & Caple, H. (2021). The Newsworthiness of Li NadA Critical Comparative Analysis of Chinese and International News Media. Language & Communication, 77, 70–80.
Zheng, J., Tan, T.-C., & Bairner, A. (2019). Responding to Globalisation: The Case of Elite Artistic Gymnastics in China. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 54(5), 536–556.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rick, O.J.C., Li, L. (2023). An Olympic China: Preparing for Beijing 2008. In: Global Sports and Contemporary China. Global Culture and Sport Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18595-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18595-3_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-18594-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-18595-3
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)