China hosting 1990 Asian Games lit way for Beijing 2008 Olympics
- Country will host next Asian Games in Hangzhou, the same year as the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics
- Dominance of the medal table began in Beijing 30 years ago, but lead-up beset with building delays, boycotts and budget issues
Beijing 2008 was not the first time the eyes of the sporting world were on China. Some 18 years before the country’s coming out party at its first Olympics, it came of age with the 1990 Asian Games in the capital.
This was the first major international sporting event held in China since Deng Xiaopeng’s introduction of Reform & Opening Up in 1979.
“Peking may bid,” ran a South China Morning Post headline on October 2, 1982. “China is actively considering hosting the 1990 Asian Games,” the story read.
The bid would indeed come the following year, but as the Post explained it was not going to be easy: the decision would be taken in Seoul – host city of the 1986 Asian Games – and China had no diplomatic ties with South Korea.
China’s presence was not guaranteed at those 1986 Asian Games as Communist nations and their allies pulled out. In the end, while North Korea, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan, South Yemen, Burma, Syria and Brunei did not attend, China did.
