Community sport in China: a policy analysis of the past decades

Promoting sport participation has become a central concern of policy agendas worldwide, with increasing attention to how community-level provision supports more active populations. Contextually, community sport represents the key arena where participation is most directly experienced and supported. Existing scholarship is predominantly Western-centric, with limited understanding of alternative community sport models and their potential impacts. Drawing mainly on the policy triangle framework, this study conducts a qualitative content analysis of 123 Chinese national-level policy documents (1978–2025) to examine how community sport has been structured, how policy priorities have evolved, and what factors have influenced these developments in China. The findings indicate that Chinese community sport has undergone a gradual shift from event-led approaches towards a more strategic, outcome-focused policy orientation, although resource-led interventions still prevail. As governance has shifted from a government-led model to hybrid arrangements incorporating market- and network-based elements, the role of community sport has been redefined. Beyond its intrinsic sport value, community sport has been repositioned as an instrumental policy tool for delivering multiple public outcomes, most notably in public health and wellbeing, supported by extensive cross-sector collaboration, particularly with the health sector. This study advances a more pluralistic understanding of community sport development beyond Western-centric frameworks.