China gets tougher in anti-doping before Olympics
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-04-22 10:06

China will increase the number of doping tests by as many as 60% over the next three years as the sporting powerhouse gets aggressive in its fight against doping, officials said in Beijing on Thursday.

"We are ready to increase the number of tests by a large margin inside the country. It will start from next year and continue through 2008, " Shi Kangcheng, head of the Science and Education Department of China's General Administration of Sports.

He made the remarks at a press conference following a two-day's Asian inter-governmental anti-doping conference in Beijing.

But he stressed that China has been always tough on doping over the past years and the new campaign is launched not only for the sake of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

"We started doping tests across the country in 1990 with 165 tests conducted, "said Shi. "The total of tests increased to 3,500 in 1999 and surpassed 5,000 last year. "

"Over the first ten years, our priority is to increase the number of tests, and during the last five years, we shifted our focus to the quality of the tests, but now we are better equipped to conduct more tests, "he added.

China's relentless anti-doping efforts have paid off as doping tests returned fewer and fewer positive results.

"The positive cases reported have decreased from the 1.8% in 1990 to 0.4% last year,"said Shi.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) also praised China's commitment to the anti-doping campaign, saying that a better-equipped new testing laboratory is being built and effective sanctions have been put in place.

"We are very pleased with the support by the Chinese government, "said WADA director general David Howman. "The quantity is increasing, the quality is improving, and their commitment is undoubted."

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