Doping in China

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), conducted a state-sanctioned doping programme on athletes in the 1980s and 1990s. The majority of revelations of Chinese doping have focused on swimmers and track and field athletes, such as Ma Junren's Ma Family Army (馬家軍). However, doping is reported to also occur for fitness tests as part of the zhongkao.

More recently, three Chinese weightlifters have been stripped of their gold Olympic medals for doping at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

China's doping has been attributed to a number of factors, such as the exchange of culture and technology with foreign countries. Some commentators have compared it to the doping programme in East Germany. Discussion of doping scandals involving Chinese athletes in international sports is widely censored in China.

Chinese swimming performances in the 1990s
In 1992 the number of Chinese swimmers in the top 25 world rankings soared from a plateau of less than 30 to 98, with all but 4 of the 98 swimmers female. Their improvement rate was much better than could have been expected as a result of normal growth and development. China subsequently performed beyond expectations to win 12 gold medals at the 1994 World Aquatics Championships amid widespread suspicions of doping. Chinese swimmers won 12 of 16 gold medals at the 1994 championships and set five world records.

Between 1990 and 1998, 28 Chinese swimmers tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, almost half the world total of drug offenders in sport. Seven swimmers tested positive for steroids at the Asian Games in Hiroshima in late 1994, these positive tests badly affected the squad to the extent that it won only one swimming gold at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Following the revelations of doping among Chinese swimmers at the Hiroshima games IOC Medical Commission chairman Alexandre de Mérode discounted the possibility of officially sanctioned Chinese doping stating that the results were "accidents that could happen anywhere". Chinese leaders initially blamed racist sports officials in Japan for manufacturing test results. A report by a joint International Swimming Federation and Olympic Council of Asia delegation to Beijing in 1995 concluded that "there is no evidence that the Chinese are systematically doping athletes". The revelations led to Australian, American, Canadian and Japanese sports officials voting against Chinese participation at the 1995 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. In 1995, the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, published an anti-doping policy and proclaimed an official prohibition on performance-enhancing substances.

China improved in swimming until 1998 when four more positive tests and the discovery of human growth hormone (HGH) in the swimmer Yuan Yuan's luggage at the 1998 World Aquatics Championships in Perth, Australia. In the routine customs check on the swimmer's bag, enough HGH was discovered to supply the entire women's swimming team for the duration of the championships. Only Yuan Yuan was sanctioned for the incident, with speculation that this was connected to the nomination of Juan Antonio Samaranch by China for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. Tests in Perth found the presence of the banned diuretic masking agent triamterine in the urine of four swimmers, Wang Luna, Yi Zhang, Huijue Cai and Wei Wang. The swimmers were suspended from competition for two years, with three coaches associated with the swimmers, Zhi Cheng, Hiuqin Xu and Zhi Cheng each suspended for three months.

Zhao Jian, the deputy director-general of the China Anti-Doping Agency described the 1998 World Aquatic Championships as a "bad incident", and said that it had led to China adopting a tougher attitude towards drug testing, with drug testing removed from the main sports administration and placed in a separate agency.

The Hiroshima games also saw a hurdler, a cyclist and two canoeists test positive for the steroid dihydrotestosterone.

Ma Junren and his Ma Family Army
In February 2016, Tencent Sports reported a letter written in 1995 by Wang Junxia and nine other athletes, who claimed that women coached by Ma Junren were forced to take "large doses of illegal drugs over the years". Yuan Weimin, former Director General of the State General Administration of Sports and Chairperson of the Chinese Olympic Committee, said in his 2009 book that six athletes by former coach Ma Junren were dropped from the 2000 Summer Olympics because they were tested positive for doping.

The International Association of Athletics Federations confirmed it had reach out to the Chinese Athletics Association for verification and would investigate the matter, but the latter did not respond.

Xue Yinxian allegations
Systematic doping of Chinese athletes in Olympic Games (and other international sport events) was alleged by former Chinese doctor Xue Yinxian in 2012 and 2017. She has claimed that more than 10,000 athletes in China were doped in the systematic Chinese government doping program and they received performance-enhancing drugs in the 1980s and 1990s. She stated that the entirety of international medals (both in the Olympics and other international competitions) won by Chinese athletes in the 1980s and 1990s must be taken back. This is contrary to previous statements by the Chinese government that had denied involvement in systematic doping, claiming that athletes doped individually. The International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency have investigated these allegations with no conclusions or actions taken as of 2022.

Trimetazidine revelations in Chinese swimming
On 20 April 2024, a coordinated investigation report between The New York Times and German broadcaster ARD revealed that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for the banned prescription heart medication trimetazidine (TMZ) at the Chinese Long Course Invitational held in Shijiazhuang City from 31 December 2020 to 3 January 2021. ARD reported that of the 23, 13 competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics seven months later, including Zhang Yufei and Wang Shun, the winner of the women's 200 m butterfly and men's 200 m individual medley, respectively, as well as some members of the gold medal-winning women's 4 × 200 m freestyle relay. After certain delays owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, The China Anti-Doping Agency (CHNADA) logged the 60 urine samples - of which 28 were positive - into WADA's Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS) by the WADA-accredited laboratory in Beijing on or around 15 March 2021. Per The New York Times, an email from this date addressed by a CHNADA legal official requested a "counterpart at the world swimming association" to "keep athletes’ information and the case strictly confidential until it is publicly disclosed by CHINADA." The matter remains widely censored in China.

A 31 page report by CHNADA, leaked in September 2021 and verified by The New York Times and ARD, found the investigations were initiated in early April 2021 - two months after the positive tests - in coordination with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security. CHNADA had also informed WADA of its initiation of this investigation per WADA. The Ministry deemed the positive cases were due to contamination, with investigators detecting traces of TMZ in the athletes' hotel kitchen (including spice containers, the extraction fan above the hob and the drains) in Shijiazhuang. While the investigators did not provide evidence of the origins of the drug, it was concluded that the athletes' "unwittingly ingested small amounts" and such, should not be prosecuted. On 15 June 2021, CHNADA officially notified WADA of its decision to accept the contamination defence and not proceed with Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) cases. In a statement following the release of the New York Times' and ARD's reports, WADA acknowledged that despite not being able to conduct an on-site investigation due to COVID protocols at the time, their remote review found that CHNADA's contamination finding was supported by "the combination of the consistently low concentrations of TMZ as well as no doping pattern with several athletes presenting multiple samples collected over the course of several days which fluctuated between negative and positive (and vice versa)." As such, WADA agreed that the athletes were not at fault nor negligent, and opted to not appeal CHNADA's decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). World Aquatics, who were simultaneously notified of CHNADA's contamination defence, also opted to not appeal CHNADA's decision.

In 2022, the International Testing Agency (ITA) raised issues with WADA regarding a possible misreporting of the TMZ samples. The WADA Intelligence and Investigations Department subsequently reviewed these issues and "concluded that proper procedures had been followed and that there was no evidence of wrongdoing." The New York Times states that the ITA's review of the case is ongoing. In April 2023, United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) investigation department contacted the WADA Intelligence and Investigations Department based on a tip-off it received alleging that these cases had been hidden. WADA states that they offered to reassess situation if USADA provided new evidence.

On 23 April 2024, three days following the publication of The New York Times' and ARD's reports, ARD released a 4 part documentary "The China File." The documentary features USADA's CEO Travis Tygart who suggests of a "cover-up" by WADA and former WADA Director General David Howman who warns that the public's distrust may cause the organisation's (WADA) reputation to "quickly go downhill." Also featured are forensic toxicologist and pharmacologist Fritz Sörgel who deems the contamination explanations to be "implausible" and Munich sports lawyer Thomas Summerer who alleges that it was "obvious that an anti-doping violation had occurred." In a separate statement, Tygart once again criticised WADA of its handling of the positive tests, stating that it "appears to be a devastating stab in the back of clean athletes and a deep betrayal of all athletes who compete fairly and follow the rules.” In response, WADA labelled Tygart's remarks as "outrageous, completely false and defamatory," and alleged that WADA had previously accepted USADA's similar conclusions of contamination involving more than 10 athletes in the U.S. However, Tygart said those athletes in question were not American and not involved with USADA (those were non-American MMA fighters), stating "it suggests WADA's decision to allow China to sweep the 23 cases under the rug without consequence is apparently just the tip of the iceberg." Tygart noted that “at least some” of the positive tests featured TMZ levels in a similar range as Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, who was dealt a four-year sanction after WADA appealed. USADA, along with the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy Rahul Gupta, called for an independent investigation into the matter. In a statement on 25 April 2024, WADA responded to these allegations by appointing Eric Cottier as an independent prosecutor to review its handling of the case. WADA said it expected Cottier to deliver his findings "within two months." USADA has not agreed with this decision, calling the appointment "self-serving." On 9 July 2024, Cottier concluded that WADA showed no bias towards China and deemed WADA's decision to not appeal Chinese swimming cases was ‘indisputably reasonable’. WADA President Witold Bańka welcomed the Cottier's conclusion and reconfirmed the importance of clarifying these "two fundamental questions in advance of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games."

In a testimony on 25 June 2024, U.S. Olympic swimmers Michael Phelps and Allison Schmitt told U.S. Congress that they have lost faith in WADA's ability to penalise athletes doping. In particular, Schmitt, a member of the U.S. 4 × 200 m freestyle relay in Tokyo that finished second to the Chinese, said she "will be haunted by this podium finish that may have been impacted by doping." In July 2024, World Aquatics confirmed that its executive director was subpoenaed to testify to U.S. authorities as part of a criminal investigation into the Chinese swimmers' doping tests.

Individual Chinese doping cases

 * Yang Aihua – testosterone
 * Wu Yanyan – anabolic steroids
 * Li Zhesi – erythropoietin (EPO)
 * Ouyang Kunpeng
 * Chen Xinyi – hydrochlorothiazide
 * Ye Qiaobo
 * Wang Xiuli

Reactions
Jinxia Dong, an associate professor at Peking University, said that the doping programme was a by-product of the "open door" policy which saw the rapid expansion within China of modern cultural and technological exchanges with foreign countries. Former East German swim coaches admitted to systematic doping on their athletes; among them, coach Klaus Rudolf played a significant role in developing China's swimming programme.

Bioethicist Maxwell J. Mehlman in his 2009 book The Price of Perfection, states that "In effect China has replaced East Germany as the target of Western condemnation of state-sponsored doping". Mehlman quotes an anthropologist as saying that "When China became a 'world sports power', American journalists found it all too easy to slip China into the slot of the 'Big Red Machine' formally occupied by Eastern bloc teams".