Sports in the People's Republic of China consists of a variety of competitive sports. Traditional Chinese culture regards physical fitness as an important characteristic. China has its own national quadrennial multi-sport event similar to the Olympic Games called the National Games. In 2018, 21% of people in China called basketball their favorite sport, followed by 17% for association football. In 2022, 22% of people in China said that basketball is their favourite sport, followed by 21% for association football.
Sports in China has long been associated with the martial arts. Before the 1980s, the country's international sports success was mainly in table tennis.How China's 1981 women's volleyballers 'inspired a billion' Peter Stebbings and Jessica Yang (Yahoo! News), 4 March 2021. Accessed 13 April 2021 This changed with the 1981 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup where the Chinese team won the gold medal amid enormous public attention.
Prior to the 1990s, sports were entirely funded by the government. In 1994, Chinese association football was professionalized, followed by basketball, volleyball, ping pong, and weiqi. Professionalization led to commercialization; this meant that sports associations became profit-making entities and that a club system and professional sports leagues were formed. Chinese athletes have also begun joining professional leagues abroad, such as basketball player Yao Ming's entry into the United States' NBA in the 2002 draft.Overview of NBA development in China at "ChinaWikipedia"
History
Dragon boat racing dates back about 2000 years ago and remains a traditional event held around China every year. Cuju, a game similar but not related to the modern game of football, was played in China during the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC. Qigong martial arts activities became popular in China.
In the late eighteenth century and the nineteenth century, elites in China generally viewed sports as undignified. Elite culture de-emphasised sport and did not view it as a significant component of personal cultivation.
China began conceptualizing sports as a matter of national concern in the twentieth century. After Japan defeated China in the First Sino-Japanese War, some Chinese thinkers began to associate physical cultivation with the well-being of the nation and envisioned sport as a new area for international activity.
Chinese on the mainland and in Hong Kong both were significant in founding the Far Eastern Athletic Association, which sponsored the Far Eastern Championship Games every two years.
Among the influences in the development of China's emphasis on sport was a 1930 book by Song Ruhai, Olympiad (rendered as wo neng bi ya, which is similar to the pronunciation of "Olympiad" and means literally "I can compete"). Ruhai had worked for the YMCA and China's amateur athletic association. The book helped incorporate the idea that China could compete in sports internationally into Chinese discourse.
During the Mao era of the People's Republic of China (PRC), China's view of international sports competitions focused on the idea of "friendship first, competition second."
During the Cultural Revolution, in 1966, China's national teams stopped training and withdrew from all international events. In 1970, China's national teams began competing again.
During the Deng era, the government increased its emphasis on winning international sporting competitions as part of its idea for a strong and more internationally-engaged in China. The State Sports Commission issued its "Olympic Model" in 1979, instructing each province to channel its sports programs toward the overall goal of winning in the Olympic games. In 1980, it issued the slogan "Break out of Asia, advance on the world" in an effort to spur China's participation in international sports.
In 1984, China participated fully in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. China won its first gold medal in history (by sharpshooter Xu Haifeng, who was celebrated nationally for the achievement) and won 14 more gold medals in the 1984 Olympics.
Even though Western observers tend to associate China with table tennis, badminton, martial arts, and various forms of pool, traditionally Western sports such as basketball and football are getting more and more popular.
Main team sports Association football
Association football is the best-attended sport in China. The 2024 Chinese Super League saw an average attendance of 19,431, while the Chinese Basketball Association typically draws around 5,000 spectators per game. Football has become the most popular sport in nearly every province of China, with basketball closely following behind. In Chinese-speaking regions, association football is not the number one sport in Taiwan, where baseball takes the top spot, and in Hong Kong, where horse racing is the most popular sport.
There is written evidence that a game similar to football, Cuju, was first played in China around 50 BC. The current Chinese Football Association (CFA) was founded in the PRC after 1949. Its headquarters is located in Beijing, and the current chairman is Chen Xuyuan. From 1994 to 2004, the CFA established the first professional football league, which was "Jia A". The Chinese Super League (CSL) is the premier football league in China, which was changed from "Jia A" in 2004, as the top of a league hierarchy that extends to four leagues. Jia in Chinese also means "First" or "Best". Since its foundation the Super League has been relatively unstable, and has struggled to maintain popularity. In 2016, the average attendance of the CSL was 24,159 making it one of the highest attending professional football league around the world.
At the international level, Chinese football has enjoyed little success despite the amount of support it receives from fans. Although the national team qualified for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, they failed to score a single goal and lost three group matches. Conversely, the women's national team has finished second at both the World Championships and the Olympic Games. Despite the Chinese women's team's success at international competitions, however, women's football in China does not receive nearly as much attention as their counterparts in Canada and the United States, therefore China's good trend in women's football may well come to an end in the near future. In 1991, China hosted the inaugural Women's World Cup in Guangzhou; in 2004, it hosted AFC Asian Cup.
Football has always been among the more popular amateur team sports for recreation in China. High schools often have football facilities, some of which are rented on weekends to local amateur teams to organize matches. It is also popular to watch on television, with large international tournaments such as the World Cup and the European Championships, as well as major European leagues receiving widespread coverage.
Basketball
In 2018, 21% of Chinese people said that basketball is their favorite sport. China hosted the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup.The Official website of the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup, FIBA.com, Retrieved 9 March 2016.
The game was introduced to China by American YMCA workers in 1896, just five years after Canadian-American James Naismith invented basketball in 1891 while working for the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Since Yao Ming's 2002 arrival in the NBA, basketball has become increasingly more popular. According to the Chinese Basketball Association, there is a record number of around 300 million active basketball players in China.
China's first professional team was started in Shenyang and sponsored by the Anshan Steel Company. The CBA was established in 1995, and by 2008 it had expanded to 18 teams.
The fact that the United States is starting to notice Chinese players after Yao Ming's success (compared to Wang Zhizhi and Mengke Bateer), and young CBA players such as Yi Jianlian and Sun Yue entering the NBA are a testament to basketball's increasing popularity.
Volleyball Volleyball arrived in Asia in 1908 and was officially introduced to China in 1910. The Chinese Volleyball Association represents China in the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball and the Asian Volleyball Confederation, as well as the representing the volleyball sports in the All-China Sports Federation.
The China women's national volleyball team is one of the leading squads in women's international volleyball, having won the Olympic title three times (1984, 2004 and 2016). China took five consecutive World titles in the 1980s, the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup in 1981 and 1985, and the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship in 1982 and 1986. Although it experienced unstable development in the 1990s, the team won the 2003 FIVB World Grand Prix, captured the gold medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics, claimed the 2015 FIVB World Cup, and finished second at the 2013 FIVB World Grand Prix and the 2014 FIVB World Championship.
During the 100th Anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2021, the "spirit of the women's volleyball team" was one of the ninety-one motivational examples celebrated as part of "the spiritual genealogy of the Chinese communists."
As of 2026, the women's volleyball team is China's most successful national sports team.
The China men's national volleyball team represents China in international volleyball competitions and friendly matches. The team twice took part in the Summer Olympics, finishing in eighth place at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, and 5th place in the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Since 1956, the men's national team has taken part in eleven World Championships, with its best results in Italy (1978) and Argentina (1982), where it finished seventh. The team also placed ninth three times, in France (1956), the Soviet Union (1962), and Czechoslovakia (1966). In 2002 in Argentina, China was 13th as a new rebuilding phase got off the ground. China took part in the opening edition of the top-class Volleyball World League in 1990 and regularly participated between 1992 and 1997, finishing sixth in 1996.
China featured national teams in beach volleyball that competed at the 2018–2020 AVC Beach Volleyball Continental Cup in both the women's and the men's sections.
Calendar of the major men's and women's professional sports leagues in China JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecemberCSL (Association Football)CBA (Basketball)CBA (Basketball)CVL (Men's) (Volleyball)CVL (Men's) (Volleyball)
JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecemberCWSL (Association Football)WCBA (Basketball)WCBA (Basketball)CVL (Women's) (Volleyball)CVL (Women's) (Volleyball)
Other team sports Bandy China started a bandy development programme by organising educational days in Ürümqi in June 2009.China on the way into the bandy family They did not come as planned to the 2011 Asian Winter Games. However, China national bandy team debuted in the 2015 Bandy World Championship. Harbin hosted Division B of the 2018 tournament.
A picture of the team based in Harbin is available online.
The China women's national bandy team made its World Championship debut in 2016. Chengde hosted the 2018 tournament.
China has announced its intention to participate in both the men's and women's tournament of the 2019 Winter Universiade.
In terms of licensed athletes, it is the second biggest winter sport in the world.
Baseball
Baseball was first introduced in 1864 with the establishment of the Shanghai Baseball Club by American medical missionary Henry William Boone. Organized baseball games were established with a game between the St. Johns University and the Shanghai MCA baseball club in 1905. However, in 1959 Mao Zedong disbanded all the teams and outlawed baseball.