Ideological conflicts behind mutual belief: the termination of the ‘dual-registration policy’ and the collapse of an effective elite diving system in China

Abstract

This article presents a study of the rationale, particularly ideological factors, of a policy change, i.e. the termination of a ‘dual-registration policy’ of Chinese elite divers, through investigating the belief system of actors in the decision-making process and in its aftermath, which was the collapse of an effective elite diver development system. Besides policies documents and academic literature, research data are also collected through thirteen interviews. The analysis of data is conducted through employing Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) as the theory of the research. Through breaking down the belief system of different Advocacy Coalitions in the case, it is concluded that the policy change and the subsequent termination of the Tsinghua system could be recognized as natural consequences consistent with the belief and value of both Chinese elite sport and the Tsinghua university, and that structural elements are influential in shaping the belief system and the decision-making process.

Keywords:

• Chinese elite sport
• diving
• dual career
• Tsinghua University
• advocacy coalition framework

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The number of medals won by Chinese athletes are calculated by the author based on the statistics on the official website of the Chinese Olympic Committee, www.olympic.cn/­athletes/olympic_champions

2. The ‘dual-registration policy’ enabled divers be registered as both student athletes from Tsinghua and Zhuanye athletes of different provinces, and compete in events of the HE sector and the Zhuanye system at the same time.

3. Lin Yue, was sent to the primary school of Tsinghua University by his parents after the Guangdong diving centre, in which he previously trained, was disbanded in 2001. During the conflicts between Tsinghua and the national team, he left Tsinghua in 2004 and joined the Beijing team. Lin won a gold medal in the Beijing Olympics when he was 17 years old.

4. Zhou Luxin was recruited to the primary school of Tsinghua University by Yu in 1998 when he was 10 years old. During the conflicts between Tsinghua and the national team, Zhou left the Tsinghua diving team in 2005 and was subsequently selected for the national team. In the Beijing Olympics, he won the only silver medal for the Chinese diving national team, which had seven gold, one silver, and three bronze.

5. Also known as depth realist ontology, Critical Realism claims that social reality consists of three levels: the level of empirical, actual and real. The structure and mechanism exist within the real domain as well as a number of events located in the actual domain are unobservable to social actors. Please see, Bhaskar (1978), Blaikie (2007, 48).