Both teams had chances in the first half-hour before Kuwait were dealt a blow in the 35th minute when Neda was shown a straight red card for flicking a boot at Yang Xu's groin.

The west Asians initially coped well with their numerical disadvantage, but it was China who opened the scoring through Zhang Linpeng in the 58th minute and Deng Zhuoxiang added a second less than 10 minutes later.

The result moves China - who are next in action against hosts Qatar on Wednesday - level with Uzbekistan on three points in Group A.

"All the Chinese players wanted to win the game and, after one of their players was sent off, we controlled the match more than them," said Gao.

"We have two targets at this Asian Cup and they are to test the style of Chinese football at the moment and also let many players have the chance to play so they can show themselves and test their abilities."

Kuwait coach Goran Tufegdzic agreed with his counterpart's assessment that the red card swung the game in China's favour.

"This game was very important for us and before the dismissal of Neda we were the better team and controlled the match," said the Serbian.

"I think you saw at the end of the first half my team still played very well without 11 players - the same at the start of the second half."

The defeat leaves Kuwait with the tough task of having to get a positive result from their next game against Uzbekistan, who have progressed to the knockout stage of the tournament in the previous two editions.

But Tufegdzic insisted there is everything still to play for as Kuwait chase a place in the quarter-finals for the first time in over a decade.

"This was only the first match and it has not finished our chances," he added. "This match has changed things for us but we still cannot talk about our chances."