Compiled by Caijing staff

From Caijing Online

China’s state-controlled tobacco industry may be in for a shock following the government’s recent decision to sign a new set of international smoking restrictions.

China was one of 130 countries that agreed to adopt the guidelines, which add teeth to a 2005 global tobacco control treaty, at a meeting held by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Durban, South Africa.

Among the signatories to the guidelines, the Chinese government is the most closely connected to the tobacco industry.

And with more than 350 million smokers – one-third of the world’s total – China is the world’s largest tobacco consumer and producer, according to official data. Every year, more than 1 million Chinese die from sicknesses related to smoking and, at current rates, another 100 million Chinese will die from smoking over the next 40 years.

The guidelines are designed to reduce public health dangers of tobacco and strengthen the implementation of the treaty. Signatories agreed not to let the tobacco industry intervene in public health policies, require strong warnings on all tobacco product packages, and prohibit commercial advertising, promotions and sponsorships by tobacco companies.

The guidelines ban government partnerships with tobacco companies as well as official policies that benefit the industry.

But China’s tobacco industry has long been controlled by the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, which is also known as China National Tobacco Co. and functions with a dual identity as government agency and enterprise. The administration oversees the entire tobacco industry, from policymaking to production to sales.

Chinese officials have not said how they might separate the government from the tobacco industry, nor have they released timetables for all the treaty guidelines.

However, new tobacco packaging rules are supposed to take effect across China in January. Future cigarette packets are expected to be stamped with dramatic pictures that deliver health warnings even to the illiterate.

Until now, industry interference in health policies has been seen as the main obstacle to full implementation of the treaty known as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. First proposed by the WHO in 1996, the treaty took effect in the first batch of 40 countries in 2005 and now has 160 signatories. China climbed aboard in 2006.

But China’s government-industry tobacco partnership has been blamed for hindering the nation’s anti-smoking efforts.

Cui Xiaobo, a professor at the School of Health Administration and Education at Capital Medical University, said the system has bred complicated conflicts of interest involving public health and tobacco interests. The system also has been a major obstacle to tobacco control tax policies, he said.

Cui said concrete progress for tobacco control could be made if China were to divide and set clear boundaries for its tobacco administration and company.