Evolution and Reformation of Sport Governance in China

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the evolution and reformation of sport governance in China since modern sport was introduced to China in the late nineteenth century, in order to understand how China’s sport and sport governance came into being, with the methodologies including the literature study method, historical research method and analysis method. Academic literatures on sport in China indicate that many complicated elements help to shape sport governance in China, because sport in China cannot be totally independent ofthe government. It has been a tool of Chinese governments and theirleadersin order to achieve their political goals, and therefore it has not been fully run for the “proper functioning of the market economy” (Hoye and Cuskelly, 2007). Thus, research on sport governance in China has to study the ideologies of different leaders in different Chinese governments, and also to investigate what political missions these leaders and their governments have assigned to sport. Historical research also shows that the globalization and modernization of Chinese society appear to be the key forces pushing the evolution, revolution and reformation forward in the development of sport and its governance. In other words, the change in sport governance in China has been proved to be highly correlated with that of Chinese society as well as its economic and political reforms. Finally, this chapter illustrates the administrative hierarchy of China’s sport, the policies in developing sports which eventually shape what sport governance looks like in China today, and a forecast of what it will look like tomorrow.