BEIJING, April 1 -- If Jim Small is to be believed, China could be crowned world baseball champions in the very near future.

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."

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.

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.

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