Chinese youth accused of not being fighting fit

BEIJING – China must urgently address the physical fitness of the nation’s youth or run the risk of raising a generation incapable of fighting the Japanese in a future war, the head of the country’s top sports university said on Thursday.

The government must immediately invest some of its new wealth in ensuring that children take regular exercise, Beijing Sports University president Yang Hua told the sports group of the largely ceremonial advisory body to China’s annual parliament.’It is time for the Chinese nation to improve the physical fitness of our next generation,’ said Yang. ‘If we miss the next three to five years a whole generation will be next to useless.’If there was another war against Japan, would the younger Chinese be able to fight the Japanese one-on-one?’The government has enough money for banquets and for luxurious office buildings, do they not have money for children’s physical education?’ he added.Japan invaded and occupied much of China between 1931 and 1945. The fitness of China’s young dominated the opening session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference’s sports group, a normally sedate gathering turned into a media circus this year by the presence of hurdler Liu Xiang.The former Olympic and world champion 110 metre hurdler, unconventionally dressed in jeans with his shirt tails hanging out, was making his first appearance as one of the 22 members of the committee.The emphasis on academic education in China – Chinese teenagers preparing for the university entrance exams often study for more than 12 hours a day – has been blamed for the lack of exercise undertaken by young. – Nampa-Reuters