With a collapse looming over the NBA, the basketball league on this coast of the Pacific Ocean sees an opportunity to steal the show with a new look.

Step one: New rules.

The Chinese Basketball Association introduced a series of new regulations for the coming season. The new rules, for both players and coaches, have drawn attention for their unprecedented strictness.

Players will be called for a technical foul for gestures like pretending to count money, jabbing their middle finger upward, or pointing at the referee's face. Deliberately spreading the hands or covering the head will draw a warning the first time and be penalized with a technical foul the second. Blocking an opponent's sight will also get a technical foul.

Quick-tempered coaches will also have to control their emotions. Things like confronting the officials or pounding the scorers' table will earn technicals.

The CBA is committed to eradicating violence on the court after several ugly brawls tarnished the image of Chinese basketball recently. According to the new rules, those who participate in a melee or strike a referee could be banned for life.

For their part, referees will be graded after games.

Foreign players and coaches will face a test in English about the new rules before the season begins.

It remains to be seen if the new rules will be carried out appropriately and effectively.

The NBA might serve as an example. It introduced a similar "zero tolerance" policy before the 2006-07 season, resulting in 2,304 technical fouls - an 11.3 percent increase over the previous season.

Players were unhappy.

The last NBA season again featured stricter rules. Aggressive gestures, like a player waving his arms in complaint, were deemed technical fouls.

The stricter rules were again met with opposition from the players.

So, can the CBA make the new rules work? We'll find out soon enough.