yes, I think they can always do it again....at least no country has china's immense resource of 1.3 billion ppl. With improving economic conditions etc., China will remain at its peak for a long time - at least, till 2008 - unless something extraordinarily bad happens.
I wonder if there is any survey. Out of the 1.3 billion, what percentage are playing badminton. And out of the 200 million Indonesians, how many are playing badminton. I won't be surprised if the people playing badminton in Indonesia are more then those in China. I don't know much about Indonesia. I think the success of Chinese badminton is more on the whole country's evaluation system. Children with potential are picked as early as in elementary school and given free formal training. And the better ones are picked to be trained in province, and finally in national level. So the best of the best are begin choosen and they all got formal training at a 6 or 7 years old.
Yes, I fully agree with you. Its called "regeneration"..the Chinese definitely have an eye on the long term...they make sure that the flow of talent never stops, not just in badminton , but in all sports that its good at, that's why it performs soo well in the olympics. From 1998-2001 Indonesia wasn't very stable politically, economically, and that made a lot of difference. PBSI dried up of funds and the country was focused on political matters at the expense of sports...whereas CHina has been quite stable and consistent, and I think that's a huge factor.
Yes there has been such a survey, though the figures are from 1999-2000 period... Find it here : http://www.worldbadminton.net/Portal/desktopdefault.aspx?tabid=61&ItemID=1231 Comparison between China & Indonesia : 1/ Number of registered players : China 336 206 Indonesia 120 000 2/ Total number of players China 165 000 000 Indonesia 500 000