PLA sports teams to withdraw from national championships

The Chinese military’s sports unit will withdraw from participation in national sports championships and individual sports events, PLA Daily, the official newspaper of the People’s Liberation Army, reported on Wednesday.

The decision is part of ongoing structural reform of the PLA’s sporting endeavors in a bid to concentrate more on combat effectiveness, it said.

PLA Daily said the Military Sports Training Center held a mobilization meeting on Tuesday in Beijing that marked the official start of the reform of the Chinese military’s professional sports teams.

The reform is being carried out at the order of the Central Military Commission, which oversees the training center through its Training Management Department, and the military sports teams will undergo major changes in terms of functions, competition participation and scale and structure.

Some professional teams with distinctive military characteristics will be retained, while competitive sports teams that are more social and spectator-friendly will be cut.

The military has not revealed details of which of its 29 teams will be disbanded or what arrangements will be made for members of those teams.

Although no more teams will compete in the China National Games, national championships and individual events, a PLA sports team will still participate in the World Military Games and other events held by the International Military Sports Council.

The Chinese Basketball Association confirmed Tuesday the withdrawal of the army-owned Bayi Rockets basketball team, one of China’s most successful sports teams, from its competition.

The CBA said it had received a letter from the Military Sports Training Center confirming the Rockets and Women’s Chinese Basketball Association equivalent the Bayi Kylin will no longer compete in the leagues.

The disbanding of the Bayi Rockets puts an end to a 25-year run that saw the rise of many prominent basketball players, including Wang Zhizhi, the first Chinese player to play in an official NBA game, who is now the team’s coach.

The PLA Daily’s report said the restructuring will highlight the sports teams’ military characteristics and “shift the military sports from being arena-oriented to military-oriented”.

China’s military sports started developing in the 1950s when the PLA established its first professional sports team — the Bayi Sports Work Brigade — in 1951. Bayi — which means Aug 1 in Mandarin, referring to the day the PLA was founded in 1927 — has churned out numerous sports stars for China, including two-time Olympic badminton champion Lin Dan and retired table tennis player Liu Guoliang, who won titles at all major world tournaments.

In 2018, in order to boost competitiveness and optimize resources, the PLA restructured the previous 22 professional sports teams of the Bayi Sports Work Brigade into the Military Sports Training Center.

This year’s reform is aimed at further refining the center’s structure, clarifying its functions and positioning, and optimizing its strengths.

A Training Management Department official told PLA Daily the reform will strive to establish new professional military sports teams that are in line with the goal of building a world-class military and meeting the strategic requirement of strengthening the army’s capabilities.

It will comprehensively improve the PLA’s professionalism and combat skills, the official added.