The government's role in China's Olympic glory

Abstract

This article examines the determinants of China's Olympic success by drawing on provincial-level data. We find that it is government spending on sports, rather than per capita income, that has the greatest impact on this success. Our findings suggest that government involvement is still the most fundamental feature of sports organization in China.

Notes

¹ Although Bernard and Busse (2000, 2004) use a dummy for planned economies, we examine the meaning of a planned economy to determine Olympic success.

² This differs from findings of Jiang and Xu (2005). They examine the determinants of medal performance in the Chinese National Games, and find that the share of total government spending does not have a positive effect on the medal performance. Our study differs from theirs in two key aspects. First, we examine the medal performance for the Olympic Games rather than the National Games. Second, we use the government spending on sports in the analysis, while they use the total government spending.

³ In particular, those who are deemed to be exceptionally promising are deprived of formal academic education to allow for the maximum amount and intensity of training. At present, there are about 400 000 youngsters being trained in more than 3000 sports schools in China.

⁴ It is said that when the roster of Olympic delegates is pending, officials from every province lobby in Beijing to make sure that their local athletes are chosen to compete, especially in the events in which China has an edge. See the Oriental Outlook (Liaowang Dongfang Zhoukan, 12 August 2004).

⁵ The Chinese people are extremely passionate about the Olympic Games. The recent Olympic success of Chinese athletes sparked great public interest and enthusiasm in China. The Games were watched by a vast television audience, and returning Olympic champions were welcomed as national heroes and rewarded by the provincial government.

⁶ See Li Qihong, ‘How heavy are the Olympic gold medals?–The nationalistic significance of Chinese sports development’, Ming Pao Monthly, August 1996. Similarly, the Soviet bloc nations had been funnelling money into sport to ‘showcase the virtues of socialism’ (Washington Post, 28 August 2004).

⁷ See Li and Zhou (2005) for more information about the personnel control and mobility of Chinese government officials.

⁸ See Washington Post, 28 August 2004 and Sanlian Life Weekly (Sanlian Shenghuo Zhoukan), 30 August 2004.

⁹ We exclude Chongqing, which was recently separated from Sichuan.

¹⁰ This was due to the unexpected success of China in the 1984 Olympic Games, which were boycotted by the Soviet Union and other socialist nations.

¹¹ Likewise, Shughart and Tollison (1993) argue that China's improved performance at the Barcelona Olympics is attributable to its adoption of a Soviet-style government sponsorship of sports.