Participating teams qualified through the previous edition of this tournament and others through regional qualifiers. Since China is assured of an automatic berth at the 2008 Olympics as the host nation, the champions will automatically qualify while the two best teams excluding China qualifies for the 2008 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men. This resulted in China deploying another team in this tournament, while their primary team led by NBA star Yao Ming and rookie Yi Jianlian participated in the Stankovic Cup and tournaments and friendlies with countries across Europe to prepare themselves.