Regulation or encouragement? China’s labour migration policies for table tennis, basketball and football players

In this chapter, the Chinese government’s labour migration policies for domestic competitive athletes in table tennis, basketball, and football are analysed through the lens of world-systems theory. First, we examine the Chinese government’s strategy for managing the exodus of domestic table tennis players. Second, we investigate the government’s management of and restrictions on basketball players. Third, we analyse the government’s attitude and actions towards the migration of domestic football players. Overall, we demonstrate that the Chinese government has adopted different policies to manage the exodus of domestic competitive athletes according to the status of each sport in the world’s system.