I read that he trained in Brazil as a teenager. Is this true? And how did that work. Did the government program just say, "Well, you're going to Brazil" and ship em off?
China had a youth program which sent teens to Brazil to live and train. I don't have much more info than that, maybe someone else does.
You guys are talking about the "Jian Li Bao" team. One of the Chinese company(forgot the name) sponsored and formed a teenager team, sent them to Brazil to train for 5 yrs, which was the "Jian Li Bao" team. Li Tie and Li Weifeng were both included. It had nothing to with the Chinese goverment.
You already said the company's name. It is a soft drink company. This team is financially support by the company, but it is still officially Chinese National Youth Team.