The 1981 World Table Tennis Championships – Swaythling Cup (men's team) was the 36th edition of the men's team championship.^{[1] [2]}

China won the gold medal defeating Hungary 5–2 in the final. Japan won the bronze medal.^{[3] [4] [5] [6]}

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
	China Cai Zhenhua Guo Yuehua Shi Zhihao Wang Huiyuan Xie Saike	Hungary Gábor Gergely István Jónyer Tibor Klampár Tibor Kreisz Zsolt Kriston	Japan Hiroyuki Abe Hideo Gotoh Masahiro Maehara Seiji Ono Norio Takashima

Pos	Team	P	W	L	Pts
1	China	7	7	0	7
2	Japan	7	5	2	5
3	England	7	4	3	4
4	South Korea	7	4	3	4
5	France	7	4	3	4
6	Sweden	7	3	4	3
7	West Germany	7	1	6	1
8	Indonesia	7	0	7	0

Pos	Team	P	W	L	Pts
1	Hungary	7	7	0	7
2	Czechoslovakia	7	5	2	5
3	Yugoslavia	7	5	2	5
4	Poland	7	5	2	5
5	North Korea	7	3	4	3
6	Italy	7	2	5	2
7	Soviet Union	7	1	6	1
8	Australia	7	0	7	0

China 5		Hungary 2	Score
Shi Zhihao	lost to	Jónyer	17–21 21–23
Xie Saike	bt	Jónyer	21–15 21–19
Cai Zhenhua	bt	Klampár	21–17 22–24 22–20
Shi Zhihao	lost to	Klampár	21–13 17–21 19–21
Xie Saike	bt	Klampár	15–21 21–16 21–15
Xie Saike	bt	Gergely	21–17 22–24 22–20
Cai Zhenhua	bt	Gergely	21–16 14–21 21–15

• List of World Table Tennis Championships medalists