The Era Coordinates and Strategic Measures for Building a Leading Sports Country during the 15th Five-Year Plan PeriodAlso on the Questions of China, of the World, of the People, and of the Times in Sports Development

Based on the historical juncture for building a sports power during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, this paper takes the questions of China, of the world, of the people, and of the times as guidance. It anchors the normative orientation, analyses practical dilemmas, traces structural root causes, and proposes strategic initiatives. The study reveals that the normative vision for building a leading sports country throughout the 15th Five-Year Plan period encompasses four dimensions: deeply integrating sports into the overall advancement of Chinese modernization, pragmatically addressing the “four deficits” in global sports governance, translating sports development outcomes into the realisation of the people’s health-related capacities and rights to sports participation, and establishing an intergenerational responsibility mechanism oriented toward the 2035 and 2050 goals. Nevertheless, multiple practical dilemmas remain, including institutional obstacles to the translation of institutional strengths into governance effectiveness; dual cognitive and institutional barriers hindering the transformation and upgrading of home-grown sports practices into international public goods; breaks in the transmission chain through which sports development outcomes translate into the people’s health and well-being and the guarantee of their sports-related rights; and a profound misalignment between entrenched short-term administrative inertia and the intergenerational responsibility required to address technological iteration, demographic transition, and ecological crises. Against these structural contradictions, this study advances a governance strategy underpinned by institutional integration, system-based governance, and asset accumulation. This strategy aims to shift the governance system from fragmented coordination toward statutory institutional norms, unlock existing momentum in the sports sector, facilitate the conversion of latent functional contributions into tangible value, and establish a long-term mechanism for the continuous translation of phased outcomes into strategic assets.