As China’s youth women’s basketball team takes the court this week for the Under-18 Asia Cup, held on home ground in Shenzhen, it’s impossible to miss one powerful weapon in their arsenal: 17-year-old Zhang Ziyu, who at 7-foot-3 towers over everyone on the court. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Standing taller than any WNBA player ever, she’s been called a “cheat code” and “unguardable” by social media users and compared to Yao Ming, China’s retired 7-foot-6 basketball legend, and Victor Wembanyama, last year’s 7-foot-4 NBA first draft pick from France. It’s not hard to see why Zhang is attracting attention: in her international tournament debut, she’s already chalking up impressive stats, shooting 9 for 9 to score 19 points during 13 minutes off the bench as China cruised to a 109-50 victory against Indonesia on Monday and helping China beat New Zealand 90-68 on Tuesday. Zhang Ziyu keeps 𝐃𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 the court 😱The Chinese young sensation puts up 36 PTS, 13 REB, 4 BLK and 44 EFF against New Zealand 🔥#U18AsiaCup pic.twitter.com/AEkPYv4L5l— FIBA (@FIBA) June 25, 2024 She scored a combined 55 points across her two games so far this week—and has barely had to even jump at all. Zhang Ziyu is 𝐇𝐄𝐑 😤17-year-old center (2,20cm/7'3'') registered 19 points and 7 rebounds on a perfect shooting (9/9) in her FIBA debut 🇨🇳#U18AsiaCup pic.twitter.com/10XKaDESYL— FIBA (@FIBA) June 24, 2024 Women’s basketball has been enjoying a global surge in attention, helped in large part by Caitlin Clark, the Indiana Fever guard and WNBA sensation hot off a record-breaking college career.