China’s STRATEGIC APPROACH TO ELITE SPORT DEVELOPMENT: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

1. China’s STRATEGIC APPROACH TO ELITE SPORT DEVELOPMENT: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE Dr. Jinming Zheng Centre for Global Sport & Recreation Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University

2. Me JinmingZheng - Current Position: Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, CGSRS, HKBU, Hong Kong • - PhD in (Elite) Sport Policy: Loughborough University (Supervisor: Prof. Barrie Houlihan) • - MSc in Sport Management (With Distinction/First Class): Loughborough University - BA in Japanese: China Foreign Affairs University (Beijing)

3. Research Focus • 1. Elite sport policy • 2. Olympic performance • 3. Sport management • 4. Sport politics and international relations • Book in production: Zheng, J., Chen, S., Tan, T. C., & Houlihan, B. (In production). Sport Policy in China. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN: 978-1-138-05166-9.

4. Journal Article Publications

5. Structure of the Presentation • The importance of elite sport success in China: Government rationale • The leveraging strategies and system • Research background • Theoretical framework • Methods • Results • Post-2016 remedy and challenges for Tokyo 2020 and beyond • Conclusions

6. The Prominence of Elite Sport in China • ‘It was a gradual process for Chinese government to realise the function of elite sport. A succession of domestic and international sporting success strengthened national pride and overcame the ‘physically-weak nation psyche. … In comparison to many other areas which is also heavily invested by government (for example, science and film), elite sport is one of the very few areas in which we can be confident enough to argue that China is one of the most successful in the world against a universal rather than self-defined criterion and this enhanced the legitimacy and political “attractiveness” to the Central Government which has long valued international prestige and ideological superiority … (Interview, previous department head of GAS, June 3, 2013).

7. China’s Leveraging strategies and system for elite sport success • Elite sport system: ‘举国体制’ (JuguoTizhi, ‘whole-country support for elite sport development’) • Government dominance: The General Administration of Sport of China (GAS), A sport-specific ministry-level organisation directly led by the State Council • Each Olympic sport directly governed by corresponding national sport management centres affiliated to GAS (except for football) Three-level pyramid: spare-time sports schools, sports schools, and full-time sports teams, including both provincial-level teams and national teams (‘national teams being the “flagship”, provincial-level teams being the “backbone and core”, key sports schools being the “reserve army” and grassroots spare-time sports schools being the “foundation”’) (GAS, 2008, p. 151) • Elite sport strategies: • Olympic Strategy (1985) • The Outline of the Strategic Olympic Glory Plan: 1994-2000 (1995); 2001-2010 (2002); 2011-2020 (2011) • 119 Project and the Invite In and Go Out strategy soon after the 2001 Decision • Further Strengthening and Progressing Sport in the New Era (2002) • 2008 Olympic Glory Action Plan (2002)

8. Elite Sport Strategy: Prioritisation (not limited to Olympic sports)

9. Extreme Examples: A Global Context • Kazakhstan: Men’s 69kg Boxing (from 2004 to 2016) • Slovakia: Canoeing Slalom (8/9) • Netherlands: Speed Skating (8/8, 23/24, 5th) • Kenya and Ethiopia in Distance Running • Peru: Women’s Volleyball etc.

10. But Priority? Risks • Romania …: Decline in women’s artistic gymnastics and women’s rowing leading to a sharp drop in gold medal number!

11. But A Lack of Priority? • Ukraine: Notable performances at most Summer OGs (between 6 and 9 gold medals) but vulnerability and fluctuations in some cases: Sydney 2000 (3 gold medals) and Rio 2016 (2 gold medals) – A lack of ‘fortress’ sports/disciplines to be stable sources of gold medals

12. Priority or diversity? • A balance. • But priority and specialisation, to varying degrees, has become one of the most dominant characteristics amongst nations’ elite sport strategies (Houlihan & Zheng, 2013).

13. But How to Effectively Prioritise and Specialise? • Theoretical Framework:Porter’s competitive advantage and cluster theory • Derived from the filed of strategic management, Porter’s (1990) competitive advantage offered a framework for the analysis of the determinants of China’s advantages on the Olympic stage. • Two key concepts were applied: ‘Diamond Model’ & ‘Clustering’

15. Research Methods • Document analysis: A range of official publications of sports governing bodies in China (GAS and national management centres), their websites and related information from the websites of influential media. • Semi-structured interviews: Seven interviews were conducted with key internal stakeholders (including previous and current political leaders, officials, coaches and judges working in both General Administration of Sport and sport-specific management centres. • Thematic analysis was applied in order to identify the factors that contributed to China’s notable success at the Olympic Games over the past decade.

16. China’s Dominant Philosophy and Strategies: A Time Flow

17. Data Analysis • Government-led development of competitive resources and environment • ‘Nations are most likely to succeed in industries where the determinants of national competitive advantage are themost favourable’(Porter, 1990, p. 128)

19. Factor Endowment and Clustering • A clear evidence of careful identification of the ‘core competence’ (in terms of human, physical and knowledge resources and infrastructure): ‘Five-Word Principle’ - Small, Fast, Women, Water & Agile. • Small: ‘Small balls’ of table tennis and badminton, and lightweight divisions in weightlifting

20. “Five-Word Principle” • Agile: Artistic gymnastics and diving • Water: Diving and 119 project • Women: Female athletes have contributed to 56% of all gold medals and 58% of all medals that China has won at the Summer Olympic Games. • Female athletes outperform their male counterparts in most sports and disciplines. China has won Olympic medal(s) in all women’s collective ball sports with the only exception of water polo, but for male counterparts, a qualification for the OG would be very difficult in most cases.

21. Gender Comparison

22. Winter OG: ‘Fast’ and ‘Women’ • Short track speed skating (9/12 gold) and speed skating (1 gold and 7 medals) • Men vs. Women: 1.5 vs. 10.5 gold, 14.5 vs. 38.5 medals

23. Factor Endowment and Clustering • Tian’s (1998) clustering training theories proved to be effective. • The impact of the establishment of clusters have been substantial. China relies overwhelmingly on primarily skill-based sports/disciplines for Olympic gold medals and medals: accounting for more than 70% gold medals and medals that China has won (Summer OG).

24. Tian’s (1998) Categorisation of Olympic Sports/disciplines

25. Primarily Skill-Based

26. China’s Performance Summary according to Tian’s (1998) Categorisation: Summer OG

27. China at the Winter OG: ‘Five-Word’and Tian’s (1996) Theory

28. Sustaining Competitive Advantage: Until London 2012 • Government has playedan active role in sustaining the nation’s advantage by ‘widening’ and ‘upgrading’. • Widening: Seeking new competitive advantage within the same sport/discipline in an event which is similar to what China has already established advantage on the world stage (e.g. targeting women’s sprint and women’s keirincycling as a result of the removal of women’s 500 m time trial); as well as targeting non-advantage events within the same sport/discipline (e.g. targeting epee and sabre in fencing in addition to foil, and ambition in men’s heavyweight weightlifting) • Upgrading: Responding to the latest regulations (e.g. FIG’s adoption of the non-maximum scoring system in artistic gymnastics) – From Factor-driven to Innovation-driven.

29. However, really sustainable? • Rio 2016: Sharp decline (from 38 to 26 gold, overtaken by Team GB in the gold medal table) • For many sports: • ‘Fortress’: Artistic gymnastics: 9 gold in 2008, 4 in 2012 and 0 in 2016! Trampoline: 2 in 2008, 1 in 2012 and0 in 2016 Shooting: 4 in 2004, 5 in 2008, 2 in 2012, and 1 in 2016 Badminton: 5 (‘monopoly’) in 2012 and 2 in 2016 • Potential advantage: Women’s combat sports (only 1 gold from taekwondo in 2012 and 2016, vs. 5 from judo, taekwondo and wrestling in 2008, 4 in 2004 and 3 in 2000) Swimming: 5 in 2012 to 1 in 2016 Fencing: 2 in 2012 and 0 in 2016, Archery!: no medal (first time since Sydney 2000) • Lagging sports: Only progress in cycling and women’s volleyball, decline (back to pre-2008 state) in the vast majority – Sailing, rowing, canoeing, beach volleyball etc.

30. Culprits • Endogenous: New (less experienced) generations, training thoughts and ‘complacency’ – Lagging behind international trends and underestimating ‘rival’ nations (The then Director of GAS, Liu Peng, 2016, quoted in CCTV, 2016) The dissipation of the Beijing 2008 legacy? • Exogenous: Rule changes (artistic gymnastics and shooting), increasingly intense international competitions (Overall, UK, Russia and Japan in general and in artistic gymnastics, USA in women’s sports and in particular in artistic gymnastics, and North Korea, Kazakhstan and Thailand in weightlifting, Japan, Spain, Indonesia (Recovery) and Malaysia in badminton, Italy, Germany and South Korea in shooting etc.)

31. Tokyo Ambition: Japan outperforming China at Tokyo 2020?! • Japan: 12 vs. China: 26 in Rio 2016 – Safe enough for CHINA in 2020? • Japan: Home advantage • Advantage overlap: - Japan’s traditional advantages: Artistic Gymnastics (China 9 gold at Beijing 2008), Judo (8 gold at Athens 2004), Swimming (from medal competitiveness to group gold medal competiveness), Women’s Wrestling (dominance, increased number of events, no event number restriction) - Threatening China’s advantages: Badminton, Table Tennis - New sports/disciplines in Tokyo (Japan-friendly): baseball, softball, karate etc.

32. China’s Remedy and Impact • Defending ‘fortress’: • Leadership and head coach change (shooting, artistic gymnastics and badminton) • ‘Invite In and Go Out’ • International influence and representation (IOC and IFs)

33. China’s Antidote: Non-Traditional Sports • But equally (perhaps more) importantly: Spreading risk across a wider portfolio of investment, expanding its ‘market’ and firmly implementing the 2011-2020 Olympic Glory Plan: Gold medal-abundant, foundation (mostly Western-dominated) sports and collective ball sports – athletics, swimming, rowing, sailing, canoeing and ‘big’ balls

34. Policy Responses • Increased global interaction in athletics and swimming: Impact - Notable • The reform of the National Games: Increased medal weight for collective ball sports and the addition of youth categories (talent cultivation): Impact – Women’s volleyball, but limited in others • Most sports, despite the recruitment of leading foreign coaches, lack competent domestic coaches and the cooperation with international talent is short-term and erratic

35. Challenge • From Summer to Winter in the lead-up to Beijing 2022 Winter OG • Expanding advantages in ice-based sports and disciplines • From ‘ice’ to ‘snow’, beyond freestyle skiing only

36. Conclusions • China’s general elite sport success: Longstanding government support, proactive policies and deliberate carefully-designed strategies (China’s competitiveness, medal potential and exogenous competition: Endogenous + Exogenous) • Strategies for competitive advantage and strategic prioritisation: ‘Five-Word’ Principle and Tian’s (1998) Clustering Theory • Resonating with Chandler’s (2003) conception of the hierarchical relationship between structure and strategy – strategy precedes structure

37. Conclusions • Who benefitted? • Elite Sport (Beneficiary) vs. Mass Sport (Limited development and rhetorical) • But mass sport: Foundation and talent pool

38. Conclusions • However, the development of certain cluster inevitably led to a thinning of collective and primarily physical-based sports/disciplines, in particular, collective ball sports • The challenges of maintaining the advantage in particular in the global sporting arms race, and the relatively low threshold of China’s advantage sports to emerging/ambitious nations

39. Conclusions • Overtaken by Japan? Though traumatic (World War II and rivalry), not overstating the matter!! • China has taken actions, but much more is needed! • For other nations, China provides a notable example in prioritisation strategy, the need to balance priority and diversity, the risk of a stagnant approach, and a wake-up call warning the necessity and challenges of maintaining its traditional ‘markets’.

40. References • Chandler, A. D. (2003). Strategy and structure: Chapters in the history of the American industrial enterprise (Reprinted ed.). Washington, DC: Beard Books. • Chen, S., Zheng, J., & Dickson, G. (Under Review). Elite sport legacy of Olympic host nations: An organisational life cycle perspective. The International Journal of the History of Sport. • General Administration of Sport of China. (2002). The outline of the strategic Olympic glory plan: 2001–2010. Beijing: GAS. • General Administration of Sport of China. (Ed.). (2008). Gaige kaifangsanshinian de zhongguotiyu[Chinese sport in thirty years of reform and opening up]. Beijing: People’s Sports Publishing House of China. • General Administration of Sport of China. (2011). The outline of the strategic Olympic glory plan: 2011–2020. Beijing: GAS. • Houlihan, B., & Zheng, J. (2013). The Olympics and elite sport policy: Where will it all end? The International Journal of the History of Sport, 30(4), 338–355. doi: 10.1080/09523367.2013.765726. • Porter, M. E. (1990). Competitive advantage of nations. New York, NY: Free Press. • Tian, M. (1998). Xiangqunxunlianlilun de jianlijiqikexueyiyi [The establishment of the theories of training based on clusters of sport and discipline and its scientific implications]. In M. Tian (Ed.), Xiangqunxunlianlilun[Theories of training based on clusters of sports and disciplines] (pp. 1–37). Beijing: People’s Sports Publishing House of China. • Zheng, J., & Chen, S. (2016). Exploring China's success at the Olympic Games: a competitive advantage approach. European Sport Management Quarterly, 16(2), 148-171. doi:10.1080/16184742.2016.1140797. • Zheng, J., Chen, S., Tan, T. C., & Lau, W. C. (Under Review). Sport Policy in China (Mainland). International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics. • Zheng, J., Tan, T. C., & Bairner, A. (In Press). Responding to globalisation: The case of elite artistic gymnastics in China. International Review for the Sociology of Sport.

41. Thank you for watching and look forward to your comments. • By Jinming Zheng