DOPING in sport is a worldwide problem and not restricted to China, says Hong Kong Sports Institute director Dr Dennis Whitby, who spent several years coaching in the mainland.
Despite positive drug tests on 11 Chinese Asian Games athletes, Whitby said the world should not be too quick to condemn China.
Instead, it should realise that doping casts a shadow throughout the whole of the sporting world.
'Doping is not a China problem, it is something that is happening everywhere in the world,' said Whitby, who coached the Chinese national track and field team in the early eighties.
'It is difficult to say how widespread it is, but when I was coaching in the United States in the late 70s, substances were found on our athletes.
'This was wherever I coached in the US. They were following up from the Europeans.' He said Australia and Canada appear to have led the rest of the world in doping control because of their superior domestic anti-drug programmes.