China will not allow new cigarette factories, including joint ventures with foreign partners, as part of efforts to reduce smoking in a country that puffs its way through almost 2 trillion cigarettes a year.
Beijing would also impose strict controls on existing tobacco production, including taxes on tobacco leaf and industry reorganization, Xinhua news agency quoted Sha Zukang (
"We will not build new cigarette factories and will undergo large-scale restructuring in existing tobacco industry enterprises," Sha was quoted as saying.
"China will continue to strictly control tobacco production in a planned way, will tax tobacco and will not permit the establishment of Sino-foreign joint cigarette factories," he said.
China is the world's largest cigarette producer. The Chinese are the world's most enthusiastic smokers, with a growing market of about 320 million, making China a magnet for multinationals as well as a focus of international health concern.
Chinese cigarettes are also among the cheapest in the world -- a packet can cost as little as US$0.08 -- and smoking kills 1.2 million people a year in China, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Last December, Philip Morris announced a joint venture to produce Marlboro cigarettes in China. Its partner is state-owned China National Tobacco Corp.
Sha's promise echoed past comments by Chinese health officials, including some by a spokesman for the country's State Tobacco Monopoly Administration early last year, and it was unclear how the Philip Morris deal would be affected.
Philip Morris declined to comment, apart from re-issuing a statement from last December announcing the China deal.
Sha was speaking at a meeting on implementing the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which China signed in 2003 and ratified last year. The convention aims to reduce tobacco consumption, including through a ban on advertising and promotion.
"The Chinese government will follow the relevant stipulations of the convention to improve its related laws and regulations, strictly control smoking in public spaces and strengthen regulation of tobacco production and business activities," Sha said.
WHO officials have said the convention's measures could help save 200 million lives by 2050 if they achieve the goal of cutting smoking and fresh recruits to smoking by a half.
But it added there was still a long way to go to cut tobacco use in China despite the government's best intentions.
"In many cities, and in many public areas, on paper smoking is not allowed, but you see even in hospitals some people still smoke," said Cristobal Tunon, WHO senior program management officer in Beijing, who works on anti-smoking efforts. "It's a social practice, and we need to change mind sets here to make it an anti-social practice."
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