The decision had been inevitable following the move last Friday (May 6) to delay the Asian Games in the Chinese city because of fears over COVID-19.

The Asian Para Games were due to take place between October 9 and 15, but now talks will be held to re-arrange the event for next year.

A taskforce comprising of the Asian Paralympic Committee (APC), the Chinese Paralympic Committee and Hangzhou 2022 will now work on finding a suitable slot to hold the Games.

A further announcement on this is expected in the near future.

The emblem, slogan and year of the Games will remain unchanged, the APC announced.

More than 4,000 athletes were expected to compete in 616 medal events in 22 sports, considerably bigger than the last edition in Jakarta four years ago when 2,762 athletes took part in 506 events in 18 sports. 

"The Games preparations have been going very well and Hangzhou 2022 was ready to deliver an outstanding Games," APC President Majid Rashed said.

"This was not an easy decision to make but we have taken it now to give a level of certainty to the International Federations, National Paralympic Committees and athletes who were planning to attend the Games.

"We will now work with the Organising Committee on securing a new date that works for the Para-sport calendar."

The Asian Youth Games, due to be held in the Chinese city of Shantou from December 20 to 28 this year, have also been cancelled, it has been announced.

China is currently battling against a rise in COVID-19 cases with the ongoing situation cited as the chief reason for the decision to postpone Hangzhou 2022.

Cities such as Shanghai have been placed into strict lockdowns as part of the country's "zero COVID" approach.

Numerous international sporting events in China have been cancelled during the pandemic due to the country implementing strict COVID-19 restrictions, which have included borders largely being closed to foreigners.

The Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing represented a rare exception to this but was held within a closed-loop system which restricted participants from interacting with the general Chinese public.

Besides the Asian Games and Asian Para Games, the Summer World University Games, due to be held in Chengdu, have been postponed until next year.

Fears are growing already over whether China's strict COVID-19 policy will be eased in time to stage the re-arranged events as last week it was announced by the Asian Football Confederation that the 2023 Asian Cup, due to be held in 10 Chinese cities, would no longer be held in the country after they relinquished the hosting rights.