China joins Southeast Asian giant Indonesia, Hong Kong and Sweden in Group B's competition at the upcoming Sudirman Cup world badminton championships.

Group A features defending champion South Korea, Denmark, England and Thailand.

The 9th Sudirman Cup badminton championships will be held in Beijing from May 10th to 15th. 42 teams from all over the world will contend for the title.

The event is one of the world's three major international badminton competitions, and is followed by the Thomas Cup for men and Uber Cup for women.

Initiated in 1989, the mixed team championship is a biennial tournament on a best-of-five format featuring both men's and women's singles and doubles as well as mixed doubles.

China won four times in a row from 1995 to 2001 bringing home over half of the championship's eight titles.

The following is the draw released on Monday by the International Badminton federation, for the 9th Sudirman Cup to be staged from May 10 to 15 in Beijing, China (prefix number denotes seeding):

Group 1A: 1-South Korea, Denmark, England, Thailand
Group 1B: 2-China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Sweden
Group 2A: Malaysia, Netherlands, Chinese Taipei, Russia
Group 2B: Singapore, Japan, Germany, Ukraine
Group 3A: New Zealand, Finland, Bulgaria, Poland
Group 3B: Scotland, India, Wales, United States
Group 4A: Norway, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Estonia
Group 4B: France, Australia, South Africa, Peru
Group 5A: Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg
Group 5B: Israel, Lithuania, Turkey
Group 6A: Sri Lanka, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Mongolia

(Agencies)