China had qualified for the tournament in South Korea through progressing from an initial three nations group along with Hong Kong and the Philippines, and in the final phase of qualification they triumphed ahead of Japan, Thailand and Nepal, thus qualifying for the tournament proper. It was their fourth entry, although they had withdrawn from the games in 1956, which meant they had previously only participated in 1936 and 1948. 

National team manager Gao Fengwen had named the following squad of 18 players for the games in South Korea: 

Goalkeepers: 1. Kong Guoxian (23) and 20. Zhang Huikang (26)

Defenders: 2. Zhu Bo (28), 3. Gao Sheng (26), 4. Guo Yijun (25), 5. Jia Xiuquan (24), 15. Zhang Xiaowen (22), 17. Mai Chao (22)

Midfielders: 7. Xie Yuxin (19), 8. Tang Yaodong (26), 11. Zhu Ping (24), 14. Huo Jianting (25), 16. Li Hui (28), 18. Duan Ju (25), 19. Wang Jun (23)

Forwards: 9. Liu Haiguang (25), 10. Ma Lin (26), 12. Wang Baoshan (25)

They begun their campaign in Busan with a 3-0 loss against West Germany. While they had initially held their own for the first half hour, and even shown some light attacking promise, they were found out at the back by a physically strong opponent which punished them with some efficient attacking play. 

Their next outing two days later, in Daegu, was against a Swedish outfit which had drawn 2-2 against Tunisia in their first match. Fengwen once again named the same starting eleven, and while they were neat and tidy, technically adept, they were a tad soft and tactically naïve, and so conceded twice in the first half, and never really looked likely to recover. 

For both these matches, China lined up in 4-4-2, thus: 

20. Huikang
5. Xiuquan (c) – 3. Sheng – 4. Yijun – 17. Chao
2. Bo – 8. Yaodong – 7. Yuxin – 18. Ju
10. Lin – 9. Haiguang

For their final game, back in Busan, against a Tunisian team which had only a theoretical chance of making it through to the knock-out stage, the Chinese management decided to make a couple of changes, though it ended goalless. This meant that both were out, and China finished bottom of the group with a single point. 

To recap: 
17/9-1988: China 0-3 West Germany
19/9-1988: China 0-2 Sweden
21/9-1988: China 0-0 Tunisia