As the World Cup grips North America this summer, China will again watch from the sidelines, while its fans cheer on unlikely amateur soccer stars — from delivery drivers to villagers — now playing in ...

World Cup team send-offs are usually a grand event. Rigorously selected players dressed in dapper suits, waving at fans before they board a plane to represent their countries at one of the biggest ...

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief. This week, as the FIFA World Cup heats up in North America, we explore the state of ...

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will feature a record 48 teams, but China is nowhere to be seen among this year's participants. The expanded field of 48 teams for the 2026 FIFA World Cup opened the doors for ...

Most positively, China’s youth sides are outperforming their senior counterparts, with the under-17 team last month securing ...

In April, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited a company that makes humanoid robots. There he floated an idea to fix the country’s woeful men’s soccer team. “Can we have robots join the team?” Xi was ...

For soccer fans like Miko Zhang, China’s failure to qualify for this year’s FIFA World Cup is almost beside the point.

Plus, what Japan and South Korea did right.

In April, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited a company that makes humanoid robots. There he floated an idea to fix the country's woeful men's soccer team. “Can we have robots join the team?” Xi was ...