CALL it arrogance or supreme confidence, but China's head coach Li Yongbo is confident none of his team's opponents, including Malaysia, hosts Indonesia, Denmark and South Korea will pose a threat to their 'double' ambition.

In fact, Yongbo predicted it will be an easy outing for the badminton giants in Jakarta.

"It will be easy for us to win the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup titles," said Yongbo at the Istora Senayan yesterday.

"We are not worried about any of the opponents as we have prepared well for the competition, and our shuttlers are in fantastic form."

But national coach Yap Kim Hock thinks otherwise and said that while China looked invincible in the Uber Cup, it's not the same in the Thomas Cup.
"Their Thomas Cup team are not as strong as before. They may have a balanced squad but their third singles Chen Jin and both their doubles (Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng, Xie Xiongbo-Guo Zhendong) are beatable," he said.

"We will ensure he (Yongbo) eats his own words if we meet them in Jakarta."

China are the top seeds in both competitions and are the overwhelming favourites to retain the Uber Cup, a title they have won 1 times since joining the international badminton community in 1984.

With the exception of 1994 and 1996 -- when they lost to Indonesia -- China have never been beaten in the Uber Cup.

When China won their 10th title in 2006 in Tokyo, their opponents failed to win even a single game. China are also hoping to win their third successive Thomas Cup title in Jakarta.

In the opening match yesterday, China dumped minnows Nigeria 5-0 in their Group A match and will face Canada today.