KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — There was good news and bad news for China in its quest to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

China kept its hopes alive Thursday night with a 4-0 victory over Maldives in the second Asian qualification round for the Cup to finally move above Hong Kong into second place in Group C with a crucial game coming in Xi’an, China, Tuesday against Qatar, the group leader.

But the bad news is that even a win over Qatar may not be enough to prevent China from crashing out of qualification at the penultimate stage for the fourth successive time. The country will have to get help from others to have a chance.

Chinese soccer fans are accustomed to their team’s letting them down when the pressure is on. But the result Thursday in Wuhan was never in doubt from the second minute after Jiang Ning headed in Wu Lei’s cross for his first international goal in seven years. The striker completed a hat-trick with two late goals. Yang Xu scored in the 12th minute.