Ten years after their last appearance in the FIBA Asia Cup final, China's men's basketball team fell just short of the title this year but has its sights set firmly on the 2027 World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games, head coach Guo Shiqiang said.
China lost to Australia by a single point in Sunday's final to finish as runner-up in the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup in Saudi Arabia.
Injuries took a heavy toll on the team during the tournament, making the campaign especially challenging for its younger players, Guo said in an interview with China Media Group (CMG) after the final.
"This Asia Cup presented quite a challenge to our new roster of Chinese National Basketball Team because of changes regarding our team members. Seven of our players had to miss this Asia Cup due to injuries and other issues. That meant only three of our players had prior Asia Cup experience, while nine were competing for the first time. We also had many young players in the squad," said Guo.
Despite the disappointment, Guo said his talented young squad had the spirit and passion to aim for future goals.
"The Asia Cup was just one of our short-term targets. We are working within a four-year Olympic cycle with detailed plans and respective goals for each year. We have basically achieved what we hoped for the Asia Cup. The ultimate goal is to perform well at the 2027 World Cup and secure a spot at the 2028 Olympic Games," said Guo.
China men's basketball team aims high despite narrow loss in Asia Cup final: head coach
Highlighting the "Future Energy" as a key direction for China's strategic emerging industries, the country's nuclear energy development, guided by its three-step strategy, has seen major strides in the past year, said a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
In a recent press briefing, Xin Feng, also deputy general manager of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), updated the media on the progresses China has achieved under the strategy.
"China's three-step strategy for nuclear energy development -- from the thermal reactor to the fast reactor and the fusion reactor -- was formulated in 1983 as a medium- and long-term plan. For the thermal reactor, over the past year, our 2.0 version of the Hualong One technology has been approved. This is a unified and fully self-owned intellectual property based third-generation nuclear power technology solution. And the Linglong One small modular reactor also successfully completed its cold-state functional test last year and is expected to be put into commercial operation this year," he said.
For the second and third steps, Chinese researchers and engineers have achieved milestones in the past year with the government support, Xin noted.
"Then for the fast reactor, last year, a closed-cycle system for an integral fast reactor successfully achieved preliminary standard design. We will continue to solve its engineering technology challenges. As for the fusion reactor, in 2025, with national support, we established the China Fusion Energy Company in Shanghai. And our Huanliu-3, a platform for conducting research and development of fusion technology, made a big stride, with an iron temperature in it achieving 117 million Celsius and an electron temperature reaching 160 million Celsius. We will continue to adhere to the development strategy and focus on technological research and engineering technology development," Xin said.
The fourth session of the 14th NPC and the fourth session of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC kicked off in Beijing on March 5 and March 4, respectively.
The "two sessions" -- which refer to the annual meetings of China's supreme organ of state power, the National People's Congress (NPC), and its top political advisory body, the National Committee of the CPPCC -- are a key event on the country's political calendar and offer a window into the country's development direction.
China's nuclear energy development makes great strides with three-step strategy: CPPCC member
