This year in May, news about how China is planning on banning smoking for all public and work places starting next year became a much talked about topic. Recently, however, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Health threw a “stink bomb” on the decision saying that the news about China completely banning smoking in all public places starting next year is a misinterpretation on the part of the media, professing that “Ministry of Health is only responsible for managing hospitals and medical facilities, requiring that these facilities ban smoking indoors”.

On the eve of celebrating the World No Tobacco Day on May 31st, recent 'retraction statement' issued by the Ministry of Health about how the previous news about banning smoking for all indoor public places is a 'media misinterpretation' has revealed a difficult situation in China when it comes to implementing the 'no smoking' policy. On November of 2003, China signed on to the WHO-backed Framework Convention on Tobacco Control treaty and became the 77th country to pledge to ban smoking in all public places by January 9th of 2011. Since making the official pledge seven years ago, how is China standing on making true what they say they're prepared to try and accomplish? Why is it so difficult trying to implement a country-wide ban on smoking in China?

First off, China is a country with a total of 350 million smokers, with over 500 billion RMB worth of tobacco consumption tax revenue and a thriving tobacco industry that provides livelihood for over 200 million tobacco planters. These are only some of the reasons behind the hesitancy on the part of the government and the different departments to try and implement a ban on smoking in the name of 'better public health'.

In about 220 days, China will have reached the deadline to fulfill their pledge to the WHO. But will banning smoking in all public places be a 'mission impossible'?

-China made a pledge to WHO to ban smoking for all public places by January 9th of 2011.

-With the deadline fast approaching, the lawmaking body of China (Standing Committee of the National People's Congress) hasn't made any move to draw up new laws regarding smoking ban in public places.

-The lucrative tobacco industry has had different departments in the government scrambling to protect their own interests. China's Ministry of Health was the lone department that actually “jumped up and did something”.

- Shenzhen hasn't handed out one infraction for smoking in public places in the last 12 years; Guangzhou hopes to utilize the influence of hosting the Asian Games to try and introduce a new law to prohibit smoking in public places.

-To make true on the pledge to ban smoking in all public places in the country will be hard to implement for China; in fact, it would need well-organized and wide-spread efforts on the part of generations of Chinese before this can be realized.

According to China's office on tobacco control, the tobacco industry and market in the country is characterized by three 'one-thirds' and eight 'world number ones'. China is a country with 350 million smokers, one third of the total number of smokers in the world; China manufactures and sells one third of the total tobacco in the world; China plants, sells, and has seen the most rapid growth of industry for fire-cured tobacco products than anywhere else in the world; China also sells the most cigarette products in the world and is the most lucrative market than any other country in terms of tobacco industry growth; China has the most smokers in the world and each year the number is increasing at an alarming speed; China is also the number one country in the world with the most rapid climb in tobacco excise taxes and revenue.

And precisely because of the above mentioned factors, China is also one of world's countries that is most plagued by tobacco-induced health risks. An estimated 540 million people are harmed by 'second-hand smoking' – of which 180 million are minors. By 2020, it is estimated that 2 million people would have died of causes related to smoking.

Smoking is an addictive habit that is both a health crisis and an economic problem. The tobacco industry is one that is deeply and complexly rooted in the economy, thus making it hard to weed out and uproot.

Some of the provinces in China solely rely on the tobacco industry for livelihood; take for example, Yunnan, its 2009 total revenue for the provincial treasury reached around 149 billion RMB, of which tobacco sales and taxes have contributed more than 45% - attesting to the true fact that Yunnan specializes in the entire line of tobacco production, from planting, to manufacture, to sales. China also has over 200 million tobacco planters, over 100 million retailers, and more than 500,000 tax and revenue bureau employees that all rely on the lucrative tobacco industry for employment and income.

And this is also evident in the fact that the Chinese tax and revenue bureau was able to collect a healthy bundle of taxes from the tobacco industry in spite of the ongoing global financial crisis. For the year 2008, tobacco excise taxes brought in a total of 449.94 billion RMB, and in 2009 the revenue jumped 12.2% to 513.11 billion RMB. And this is only taking in to account changes after China started the implementation of a higher tobacco tax in the recent years. Back in 2009, with the raise in tobacco taxes, China's State Tobacco Monopoly Administration assured everyone that the latest raise in taxes will not be reflected in the prices for tobacco consumers. This is because consumption taxes were raised for higher-priced tobacco products, whereas, lower-priced tobacco products were left alone.

On the other end of spectrum, as WHO pointed out, the tobacco industry may be lucrative for a country in terms of the economic benefits it brings about, but it is equally devastating to the country's economy when considering the long term effects. According to WHO studies, if for example a country has levied a few hundred million dollars in annual taxes for consumption of tobacco products previously, it is expected that after 20 years, the country would be expected to pay 2.8 times what it has levied in taxes to take care of health detriments to the public for smoking-related causes.

“Do you want better GDP or better public health?” This is the question that is posed to the Chinese government at the moment, but unfortunately, it seems that the balance is still being tipped in favour of the former for the time being.

Source: gcpnews.com

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Keywords: China smoking ban conflicting interests ban smoking China public smoking band 2011 China WHO pledge China tobacco industry