General
China's bid for a first Olympic medal in men's football began in earnest at the end of 2006 when Serbian coach Ratomir Dujkovic was appointed with the target of guiding the country's U23 team to at least the semifinals of the 2008 Olympic Games. With automatic qualification as hosts, Dujkovic's task has been to establish a squad of players and ensure they are prepared and experienced enough to be competitive and make the most of their ability under the pressure of expectation from sizeable home support. Up to now, China's Olympic record in football is not good, failing to win a match or even score a goal in their three matches at the 1988 Games in Seoul, but Dujkovic will be confident his players, drawn largely from the squad that were narrowly beaten by Germany in the second round of the 2005 World U20 Championships, can at the very least improve upon those statistics.

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The following results are included in the Competition Highlights field. There can be small discrepancies due to the lack of sources for certain results. Note that the results are sorted on rank within a competition.

Results in Last Olympic Cycle:
- All Placings at 2004 Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup 2006 and FIFA Women's World Cup 2007
- All Placings at FIFA U-20 World Cup and FIFA U-17 World Cup
- All Placings at Continental Championships

Historical Results (before OG 2004):
- All Placings at Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup and FIFA Women's World Cup
- All Placings at FIFA U-20 World Cup and FIFA U-17 World Cup