Du Feng, head coach of the Chinese men's national basketball team, is about to lead his players at the FIBA Asia Cup in Indonesia. When asked about the team's goal for the tournament, he said China will go for the championship.

China are in Group B with South Korea, Bahrain and Chinese Taipei in the Asia Cup and will play against the three opponents on July 12, 14 and 16, respectively. In the last edition of the tournament in Lebanon in 2017, China lost in the quarterfinals to Australia, who won the title in the end.

"The participation of Australia and New Zealand in the Asia Cup was a great boost to Asian basketball. I hope our team can go for the championship this time," Du said.

The Chinese national team finished the latest stage of the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian qualifiers in Australia on Monday. They beat Chinese Taipei twice and lost to Australia twice. Du said the four games were very helpful to the team in preparing for the Asia Cup.

"Our players did well generally. There were some regrets, but it's part of growth," Du said. "The regrets were the two losses against Australia. The first one was close and the second one was a collapse. If we had better stamina, we would have the better chance to win."

The 23-point loss to the Boomers on July 3 was a painful blow to China, but fortunately, they bounced back quickly in less than 24 hours, beating Chinese Taipei 97-56.

"Our game was very smooth today. We shared the ball well and delivered as many as 26 assists," Du said on Monday. "But we could have done better as we missed some open shots. But we are moving toward in the right direction."

Sun Minghui returned for China in Monday's game after missing the previous two games because of injury. "Sun's return brought us great help in orchestrating and he made decent contributions for the team," Du said. "I hope he can perform well in the coming Asia Cup."

As a more authentic playmaker compared with Guo Ailun, Zhao Jiwei and Zhao Rui, Sun will play a key role for the Chinese national team because the position of point guard has been one of the biggest shortcomings of the squad for years. If Sun can make a difference as an orchestrator, it will be a great boost to the team's offense.

China received another piece of good news on Monday as Zhou Peng, captain of the Guangdong Southern Tigers, was likely to join the national team for the Asia Cup. Zhou posted a photo of him carrying travel bags on the social media platform accompanied with the following words: "Hit the road for a long trip."

Zhou has been one of the best options of China in the small forward position. His absence during this stage of the World Cup qualification tournament made the team very vulnerable in the wing on both offense and defense. They will need him to perform well to meet their goal in the Asia Cup.