A lack of belief has often been seen as one of the reasons for China's failings on the footballing stage, but head coach Gao Hongbo will take his team into the 2011 edition of the Asian Cup preaching another mantra altogether.
Successive Chinese teams have struggled at Asian level and the national team's fortunes have been in the doldrums since China last reached the final of the Asian Cup in 2004.
Victory at the East Asian Championship in Japan in February last year, however, went some way towards reversing that trend and now Gao will take a squad boasting many of the team that won the regional title into their opening game against Kuwait.
But to succeed, Gao knows a new way of playing had to be found for China to have any hope of matching the leading nations in Asia. 'Self-confidence is one of the problems that we have had in the past, but it's only one of the problems we have had. I think the biggest problem ... is that we didn't have a good direction or a good football style, so I believe this tournament is a good test to see if this style is good enough for our team.'
China will certainly find out soon enough if they have what it takes to compete at Asian level with a side that remains relatively inexperienced at the international level.
The Kuwaitis are the reigning West Asian champions, also won the prestigious Gulf Cup in Yemen in December and are being seen as an outside bet for the title after their recent run of form.