Since 1979 Chinese athletes have taken part in seven Olympic Summer Games, taking a total of 163 golds, 117 silvers and 106 bronzes and making valuable contributions to the global Olympic Movement. Through the Games Chinese athletes have won medals, friends and experience and displayed China's strength to the rest of the world. In China's first full-scale participation in the Olympics in 1984, sharpshooter Xu Haifeng won China's first Olympic gold medal, which was described as "a break through zero."

Since 1980 China has participated in eight Olympic Winter Games, winning 4 golds, 16 silvers and 13 bronzes. In 1988, Chinese short-track speed skater Li Yan claimed 1 gold and 2 bronzes at the Calgary Games, where short-track speedskating was a demonstration sport. At the Salt Lake City Winter Games in 2002, 26-year-old short-track speed skater Yang Yang (A) twice struck gold in the women's 500m and 1000m to become China's first-ever Winter Olympic gold medalist in history.

China first got involved in the Asian Games by sending a delegation to observe the 1st Asiad in 1951 when the country was barely two years old. China severed its relations with the Asian Games Federation in 1954 because of the Taiwan problem. It was not until 1973 when China was admitted into the AGF, which enabled it to participate in the Asian Games for the first time when it was held in Tehran in 1974. Since the Seoul Asiad in 1986 China has been high on top of the gold medal table for eight times in a row.

The Chinese National Games, regarded as the largest and most important sports extravaganza in China, are modelled on the modern Olympic Games. Over the years the Games, with minor readjustments made time and again to meet the requirements of the "Olympic Strategy" put forward by the national sports authorities, have played a major role in promoting the development of sports in China and helped lay a solid foundation for training and selecting up-and-coming Chinese athletes for major world competitions.

Developed from cultural performances and sports of China's 55 minority nationalities, the Chinese National Minority Nationalities Traditional Sports Games have, since 1953, seen nine editions, with the participation of athletes and teams of different ethnic groups from all over the country. For both participants and spectators, the Games, which are now a quadrennial event featuring a variety of interesting sports events and many more demonstration events, provide a great opportunity for demonstration of multi-ethnic cultures, costumes and, more importantly, the national unity.