If Jim Small is to be believed, China could be crowned world baseball champions in the very near future.

Jim Small (right), vice president of MLB Asia, and Lei Jun, chairman of the Chinese Baseball Association, shake hands after signing the strategic partnership contract in Beijing on Wednesday. [China Daily]

Small, vice president of MLB Asia, said at a strategic partnership signing ceremony between Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Chinese Baseball Association (CBA) on Wednesday that not that long ago nobody believed Chinese swimmers would win at the Olympics or Chinese athletes would excel at the Winter Games.

"There is no reason to doubt that in the near future some of the world's best baseball players will be Chinese," Small said. "It will take some time but it's definitely going to happen."

MLB and CBA extended their cooperation for another four years to help grow baseball in China despite the fact the game has been kicked out of the Summer Olympics, for now.

During this coming four-year period, MLB will help the CBA in training players, coaches and umpires, with an aim to further spreading the US pastime in the world's most populous nation.

The cooperation between the two organizations started in 2002 and both sides are happy with the results and they should be.

The Chinese national team, coached by Jim Lefebvre, who recently became the San Diego Padres' hitting coach, shocked the baseball world by beating Chinese Taipei at the Beijing Olympics and repeated that feat at the World Classics. The team also took a South Korean team that beat the US to 12 innings in a 1-0 loss at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"MLB is prepared to do whatever it takes to help develop baseball in China. We plan to bring the team to the United States in July in preparation for the Guangzhou Asian Games," Small said. "But as to who manages the team next, it's up to the CBA."

Baseball is still a medal sport at the Asian Games and the Chinese pro league is set to swing away later this year.

"The partnership with MLB since 2002 has borne a strategic significance with Chinese players going to play in the US and national team coaches getting training from MLB experts," Lei Jun, chairman of the CBA, said.

"We did achieve some progress (the two wins over Chinese Taipei) but that's not much compared with the real strength of other Asian countries as well as the world's power teams.

"The road of baseball development has been and will still be bumpy. That's why we need the help of MLB," Lei said.

"Our goal (of the partnership with CBA) is to have baseball reach a significant level in the world's largest country," Small said.

For that, Small said there were two areas of focus.

That is to make the game more visible and more popular through road shows, the setting up of clubs at college campuses, the continuation of the Play Ball! Program in 120 schools and increased TV coverage in China. The other focus is to increase the level of play in China through MLB providing coaches and inviting the national squad to the US for training each year.

Small said a MLB Development Center was set up in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, last September to target potential national team talent.

"The result of the long and important partnership between MLB and CBA for the past 10 years is nothing short of astonishing," Small said. "Several players went to play in the pro leagues in the US, the national team grew and most surprising is that more people play baseball today than before.

"The passion in kids we have seen shows that, no doubt, China will reach the goal of becoming a strong baseball nation," Small said, adding MLB's ultimate goal was to make the game a Chinese sport.

"Our goal is to not to have a foreign coach; it is to be played by the Chinese, coached by the Chinese and umpired by the Chinese."

On Saturday, the MLB Baseball Park will be held at the Beijing Solana, where people can go and experience the excitement of playing the game.

"The ballpark is a fine form of spreading the sport. The CBA will send national team players or local outstanding players to get involved in the project in order to let more people know about baseball," said Shen Wei, secretary-general of the CBA.