Mao Jianqing was included in the under-23 squad to play Football at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha; however, he missed the tournament due to injury. Mao Jianqing still went on to join the senior team and made his debut against Palestine in a 2-0 win on October 11, 2006 where he also scored to send them to China to the 2007 AFC Asian Cup finals. Under the head coach Zhu Guanghu he became the first choice left-winger within the Chinese team and was included in the Asian Cup Cup tournament. Within that campaign he started in all of China's games where they were knocked out in the group stages and scored his only goal of the tournament against Iran in their 2-2 draw.