Athletics - Team People's Republic of China

General
The People's Republic of China have competed at five Olympic Games in the 4x100m relay. They failed to make the final on debut in 1988 in Seoul or four years later in Barcelona. They qualified for their first final at Sydney 2000 and finished last, and would only appear at one of the next three Games, in front of a home crowd in Beijing in 2008, where they failed to progress from the heats.

At the 2016 Games, the Chinese team missed out on the final by 0.006 seconds to Canada. They had originally finished eighth behind Canada in the heats, but were relegated to ninth after the US team successfully protested against Allyson Felix's dropped baton exchange that was found to be the fault of a Brazilian runner. This led to the unusual situation of the US team being allowed a solo re-run that ultimately booked their place in the final and relegated the Chinese team to ninth and elimination.

At the world championships, the Chinese team made their first final on their debut at the tournament in 1997, but would have to wait another 22 years before qualifying for another final at the tournament. At the 2019 edition in Doha, they looked to be in the running for their best-ever finish until a mistake on the last baton exchange resulted in disqualification. They were also disqualified at the 2017 World Championships in London, as well as at the 2019 World Relays in Yokohama, which meant they were unable to defend the bronze medal they won at the 2017 World Relays in Nassau.

At continental level, the Chinese team won silver behind Bahrain at the 2018 Asian Games, which was only the third time in 10 appearances that they had not won gold at the Asian Games.