Also, it was the first to be played on a new four-year cycle, and is no longer a part of the qualifying process for the World Cup or the Olympics.

In 1985, the Philippines defeated a full-strength Chinese team, which were by then five-time defending champions, in the championship round.

The Chinese then won every game in the championship until 1997, where they to lost to South Korea in the semi-finals where they complained about the climate in Riyadh.

[citation needed] The Koreans beat the Japanese in the final, but the Chinese would then start a championship streak of four tournaments, led by Yao Ming.

The 2009 championship started a streak of finals contested between a team from the Middle East and a team from the Far East; in 2011, Iran was eliminated by Jordan in the quarterfinals, which would then lose to hosts China by one point in the final.

The East, Gulf, Southeast and West subzones receive two berths each, while the Central and South zones get one each.

Each subzone conducts a qualification tournament up to a year before the championship to determine the qualifying teams.

The classification games will be conducted as follows: A total of 33 national teams have appeared in at least one FIBA Asia Cup in the history of the tournament through the 2025 competition.