Where good intentions fail

Sport diplomatic relations between high-ranking party-state actors in the People’s Republic of China and foreign actors in sport have intensified significantly in recent years. The Chinese political centre under the leadership of Xi Jinping wants to transform the country into a “powerful sports nation” (体育强国, tiyu qiangguo). At the same time, China is seen as an important (future) market by many international actors in sport. The purpose of this research article is to retrospectively trace, understand and explain the interactions between Chinese political and foreign socio-economic actors with regard to the policy field of sport in the Xi Jinping era. Drawing on the interaction-oriented policy research of Renate Mayntz and Fritz W. Scharpf, it is argued that the analytical concept of political steering is suitable for examining such reactions and interactions between actors. The case-centred qualitative research method of “explaining-outcome process tracing” was chosen for this study to investigate interactions between the Chinese party-state and the German Football Association with regard to the thematic focus on Tibet.