ABSTRACT
When an outsider noted of a significant moment in Chinese sporting history that the world’s most populous nation ‘took her place in the international community of sports, and did so in a brilliant manner’, it might be assumed that such praise came in the wake of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.1 These comments, however, were made 45 years earlier, by an American observer of a little-remembered multi-sport event that took place in Jakarta, Indonesia. November 2013 marked the 50th anniversary of this contentious (at the time) moment in the history of decolonisation and international sport, one in which the People’s Republic of China (hereafter, China) played a central role. Prior to the 2008 Olympics, China’s most sustained support of an international multi-sport event came in 1963 when it contributed significantly to the financing of and then dominated the medals table at the inaugural Games of the New Emerging Forces (GANEFO), held in Jakarta.
