The Chinese national ice hockey team is the national men's

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

team of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The team is controlled by the Chinese Ice Hockey Association and is a member of the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; ; ) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 84 member countries. The IIHF maintains the IIHF World Ranking based on international ice hockey to ...

(IIHF). China made its

world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

debut in 1972 in Pool C. The team experienced its golden era during the 1980s, achieving its best-ever result at the world championship by finishing 15th in 1982. Team China began to decline in the early 1990s, struggling with an aging core, lack of replacements, and decreasing government support as the country shifted toward a market-based sports system. China soon dropped to Division IIB (the fifth tier) and spent years ranked between 35th and 40th in the world. At the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China participated in the men’s ice hockey tournament as the host nation, earning an automatic berth despite being ranked just 38th in the IIHF World Ranking at the time of the hosting rights award. In preparation for the Olympic tournament, China naturalized 15 players – 11 of whom were of Chinese descent. While the team failed to earn a single point, it impressed by narrowly losing 2–3 to Germany, the defending Olympic silver medalist. Beginning in 2023, the Chinese Ice Hockey Association moved away from naturalized players and committed to building a roster of domestic talent. The rejuvenated squad has managed to stay in Division IB for two consecutive years and, in November 2024, took part in the inaugural IIHF Asia Championship.

Tournament record

Olympic Games

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

– 12th place

World Championship record

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

– 18th place (5th in Pool C) *

1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...

– 19th place (5th in Pool C) * 1974 – 20th place (6th in Pool C) *

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

– 20th place (4th in Pool C) *

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

– 18th place (Pool B) * 1981 – 18th place (2nd in Pool C). Promoted to Pool B * 1982 – 15th place (6th in Pool B). Relegated to Pool C *

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

– 19th place (3rd in Pool C) *

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

– 19th place (3rd in Pool C) * 1986 – 18th place (2nd in Pool C). Promoted to Pool B *

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

– 16th place (8th in Pool B). Relegated to Pool C * 1989 – 19th place (3rd in Pool C) * 1990 – 19th place (3rd in Pool C) * 1991 – 18th place (2nd in Pool C). Promoted to Pool B *

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

– 19th place (7th in Pool B) * 1993 – 19th place (7th in Pool B) *

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

– 20th place (8th in Pool B). Relegated to Pool C * 1995 – 25th place (Pool C) * 1996 – 27th place (Pool C) *

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

– 27th place (7th in Pool C) *

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

– 28th place (4th in Pool C) *

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

– 28th place (4th in Pool C) *

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

– 26th place (2nd in Pool C). Promoted to Division I *

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

– 27th place (5th in Division I, Group B) * 2002 – 28th place (6th in Division I, Group B). Relegated to Division II * 2003 – 32nd place (2nd in Division II, Group B) *

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

– 30th place (1st in Division II, Group A). Promoted to Division I *

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

– 28th place (6th in Division I, Group A). Relegated to Division II * 2006 – 30th place (1st in Division II, Group B). Promoted to Division I * 2007 – 28th place (6th in Division I, Group A). Relegated to Division II * 2008 – 32nd place (2nd in Division II, Group B) *

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

– 34th place (3rd in Division II, Group A) *

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

– 38th place (5th in Division II, Group B) *

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

– 36th place (4th in Division II, Group B) *

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

– 36th place (2nd in Division II, Group B) *

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

– 38th place (4th in Division II, Group B) *

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

– 38th place (4th in Division II, Group B) *

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

– 35th place (1st in Division II, Group B) Promoted to Division II, Group A *

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

– 34th place (6th in Division II, Group A) Relegated to Division II, Group B * 2017 – 35th place (1st in Division II, Group B) Promoted to Division II, Group A *

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

– 32nd place (4th in Division II, Group A) *

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

– 33rd place (5th in Division II, Group A) *

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

– Cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

– Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic *

– 27th place (1st in Division II, Group A) Promoted to Division I, Group B * 2023 – 25th place (3rd in Division I, Group B) *

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

– 26th place (4th in Division I, Group B) *

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

– 26th place (4th in Division I, Group B) * 2026 – (Division I, Group B)

Asian Winter Games

* 1986 – 1st Gold medal with cup

* 1990 – 1st Gold medal with cup

* 1996 – 3rd Bronze medal with cup

– 3rd

* 2003 – 3rd Bronze medal with cup

* 2007 – 4th *

– 4th * 2017 – 4th *

– 4th

Asia Championship

– 4th

Head-to-head record

''As of 14 February 2025'' Teams named in ''italics'' are no longer active.

References

External links

*
IIHF profileNational Teams of Ice Hockey
{{DEFAULTSORT:China Men's National Ice Hockey Team Ice hockey teams in China National ice hockey teams in Asia

Ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

Men's national ice hockey teams