smoking and cigarette sales increase

The country of the dragon is going against the trend of the rest of the world, where consumption is falling. Sales reached 2440 billion in 2023. In 2022, smokers were 24.1%, a figure well above the world average of 17%. Experts believe that it is urgent to accelerate national legislation on tobacco control.

Beijing () – Unlike the rest of the world, where a decrease is recorded, the Chinese are confirmed as the main tobacco consumers in the world, the country holds the record of being the largest producer and cigarette sales have experienced a new increase in recent years. Policies promoted by some regions to limit smoking, such as banning indoor smoking or raising taxes, have been paused in recent times due to officials’ concerns about the negative impact they may have on the economy. .

After a decline between 2014 and 2016, when several major Chinese cities introduced strict indoor smoking bans, cigarette sales have risen again over the past five years. The total figure reached 2,440 billion in 2023, according to a report published in August by the Think Tank Research Center for Health Development and reproduced by the Chinese site Sixth Tone. According to vice director Jiang Yuan, one of the factors that has led to the increase in cigarette consumption in China is the popularity of slims among younger people, thanks to their fashionable design and the misperception that they are less harmful than normal cigarettes.

Marketing plays an important role, because it gives them a more sophisticated and elegant image. “Some tobacco companies – continues the expert interviewed by Sixth Tone – specifically make shorter cigarettes, for example, for passengers on high-speed trains who cannot take more than a few puffs before throwing them away,” taking advantage of short stops. However, health experts say they are not more safer than other tobacco products: each slim cigarette is equivalent to a third or half of a traditional cigarette.

The rise of smaller cigarettes could explain why total sales have increased while the national smoking rate has decreased slightly. According to official statistics, the number of adult smokers in China fell from 26.6% in 2018 to 24.1% in 2022. A value that still remains well above the global figure of 17% in 2021. China has the official goal of reducing the prevalence of adult smokers to 20% by 2030. Achieving this goal will be an almost “impossible” challenge if there is no “change” in policies.

Jiang also partly attributes the divergence between Chinese and global cigarette consumption to the growth of the e-cigarette industry outside of China. A trend that is expanding around the world, but that in China has been limited by strict regulations, such as the ban on all non-tobacco flavored vaporizers in 2022. Finally, the anti-smoking policies that Beijing is considering should focus above all in men: according to official data, in 2018 more than half of adult men in China smoked, compared to about 2% of women.

The importance of cigarette taxes to state revenue and the influence of tobacco and hospitality companies have slowed the pace of anti-smoking measures in the Dragon Country, despite rising health costs, experts say. for the country. About a decade ago anti-smoking laws were gaining ground, when Beijing introduced a smoking ban in all indoor public places in 2015 and Shanghai followed suit a year later. However, the recent slowdown in the economy has made officials more cautious about curbing tobacco industry revenues, especially since companies in the sector are among the main generators of jobs and income for the nation.

In addition, China still does not have a national anti-smoking law, because a project developed in 2014 to comply with a directive from the World Health Organization (WHO) was not approved. As a result, China’s anti-smoking legislation mainly depends on regional laws. “It is urgent to accelerate national legislation on tobacco control,” concludes Wang Qingbin, professor at the Chinese University of Political Science and Law, because the phenomenon can only be stopped with framework regulation.