@article{805297a1c96c44cebe6f49052e333664,
title = "Sport policy in China (Mainland)",
abstract = "Sport has been an integral part of the Chinese government{\textquoteright}s policy agenda since the People{\textquoteright}s Republic of China was founded in 1949. The policy prominence of sport has been further elevated in the last two to three decades, as indicated by the steady increase in elite sport success, the hosting of sports events such as the Olympic Games, China{\textquoteright}s increased global engagement with sport organisations and the developments in sport professionalisation and commercialisation. This article reviews China{\textquoteright}s sport policy at different periods since its inception, analyses the rationale for, and form and extent of, government intervention, presents the sport structure in China and identifies the dominant characteristics of its sport policy. In addition, various sport policy areas, ranging from elite sport and mass sport to sports mega-events, and sports professionalisation are discussed, and their relative policy significances are compared. The degree of balance between these areas and policy priorities are thus defined. Finally, emerging trends and issues are introduced.",
keywords = "China, elite sport, GAS, sport for all, sport policy",
author = "Jinming Zheng and Shushu Chen and Tan, {Tien Chin} and Lau, {Patrick W C}",
note = "Funding Information: In China, the vast majority of the funds directed to sport are derived from the government budget. This particularly applies to elite sport development in China. During the period 1976?1988, elite sport relied overwhelmingly on central and local government sports budgets. The total amount of money granted to sport during the period 1986?1990 doubled in comparison to that between 1981 and 1985 (see Table 2). It is noteworthy that 80% of the sports budget was distributed to elite sport, as required by the Olympic Strategy (Hong 2008). As noted above, there were drastic policy reforms in the aftermath of China?s poor performance at Seoul 1988. An immediate response by the Chinese government was the dramatic increase in the sports budget. The total sports budget for the Barcelona Olympiad tripled in comparison to that for the Seoul Olympiad (see Table 3). The annual figure increased by a larger margin in the Sydney Olympiad and finally exceeded 10 billion yuan in 2001. The total amount of sports funds for the Sydney Olympiad was almost twice as much as that for the Atlanta Olympiad. Elite sport was the largest beneficiary. As Hong (2011, p. 406) observed, ?the proportion of the government?s sports budget spent on elite sport compared with mass sport became extremely skewed?. In comparison, sports lottery was fairer and it was reported that the vast majority of the lottery money was granted to mass sport. Despite the hegemonic dominance of government subvention in funding sport development, the source of financial support for sport in China has become more diverse in recent years. In general, there are three main sources of sports funds: government sports budget, commercial money and lottery funding (see Figure 4). The incorporation of commercial money in supporting sport, including elite sport (through sponsoring the team or individual, mainly star athletes), is a clear manifestation of the burgeoning developments of economics in general and of commercialisation and professionalisation in particular in China since the 1990s. However, it is noteworthy that the private sectors, despite their substantial financial contributions, are strictly excluded from decision-making of GAS and hence have very limited impact on the policy direction of sport development in China (a senior policymaker and previous department head of GAS 2013, quoted in Zheng 2015).Figure 4. Sources of income for the Chinese sport system. Source : Tan and Green (2008, p. 328). Table 4 shows the budget of GAS from 2007 to 2015, which focuses on funding at the central government level. Data prior to 2007 are not accessible, while the figure for 2016 has not been released at the time of writing.",
year = "2018",
month = jul,
day = "3",
doi = "10.1080/19406940.2017.1413585",
language = "English",
volume = "10",
pages = "469--491",
journal = "International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics",
issn = "1940-6940",
publisher = "Taylor and Francis Ltd.",
number = "3",
}