Smoking in China
In China, smoking and the sale of cigarettes is legally allowed, and they can be purchased online, but buying them from vending machines is not permitted. Importing cigarettes for trade is allowed with a license. However, there is a complete ban on all tobacco advertising, and health warnings on cigarette packaging are required. The minimum legal age for purchasing cigarettes is 18 years, and there are legal restrictions on smoking in public places as well. Cigarettes are subject to a total taxation rate of 52% with a specific excise component of 0.98%. As of 2024, China had an estimated 288.3 million current adult smokers, with an adult smoking prevalence of 24.4%. Among males, the smoking prevalence was 46.4%, and among females, it was only 1.9%. The number of daily smokers was approximately 256.9 million, with an adult daily smoking prevalence of 20.3%—38.6% among males and 1.3% among females. According to 2021 data, tobacco smoking caused about 2.7 million deaths in China—2.2 million among males and 490,700 among females. This presents that smoking accounted for 22.78% of all deaths in the country, including 31.81% of male deaths and 10.11% of female deaths.
Read articles from China
November 05, 2020 by taiwannews.com.tw
Taiwan mulls ban on flavored cigarettes
Taiwan’s health authorities are seeking to prohibit flavored tobacco products found to appeal to youths.
Around four out of 10 juvenile smokers used flavored cigarettes in 2019, and the products appear to be more popular among girls. Over 81,000 teenagers reported having developed the habit of using traditional cigarettes last year, according to the Health Promotion Administration (HPA).
There were over 1,200 registered tobacco flavorings in Taiwan in 2019, with the 10 most common being vanilla, floral and fruity flavors, candy, [...] Most of the ingredients are chemical compounds.
October 12, 2020 by sixthtone.com
Shenzhen Expands Its War on Tobacco, E-Cigarettes
One of China’s most adamantly anti-smoking cities has vowed to stop selling e-cigarettes near schools and reduce children’s exposure to secondhand smoke at home as part of a new “smoke-free communities” campaign.
In a more focused update to its “smoke-free city” campaign launched in 2018, the southern metropolis of Shenzhen pledged Saturday to strictly prohibit the sale of not only tobacco products but also e-cigarettes within 50 meters of primary and middle schools, according to Sixth Tone’s sister publication The Paper.
September 18, 2020 by scmp.com
China’s largest e-cigarette brand Relx to study health effects of vaping amid regulatory crackdowns
Are electronic cigarettes a safe alternative to smoking?
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says no, but China’s largest e-cigarette brand Relx Technology thinks more research could prove otherwise.
“E-cigarettes are sometimes viewed with suspicion because we have incomplete knowledge,” said Relx co-founder and head of R&D and supply chain Wen Yilong. The company unveiled a new bioscience laboratory on Thursday to study the health effects of vaping.
September 17, 2020 by vaping360.com
Will Synthetic Nicotine Skirt FDA's Tobacco Authority?
Hangsen Technology, located in Shenzhen, China, is a division of Hong Kong-based Hangsen Holding Co., Ltd. The company has manufactured e-liquid in facilities around the world since 2009.
Hangsen will launch SYN NIcotine—which is created with lab chemicals, rather than extracted from tobacco plants—in North America soon. Synthetic nicotine is not a new concept; other companies also manufacture tobacco-free nicotine, and it has been used commercially in a few vaping products.
January 13, 2020 by reuters.com
Chinese e-cigarette firm Relx to open 10,000 stores within three years
E-cigarette company Relx Technology said on Saturday it will open 10,000 stores globally over the next three years in a big expansion for the Chinese vaping startup.
Relx currently has more than 1,400 stores globally, the majority of which are located in China and run by third-parties.
The company’s retail outlets, as it expands, will be a combination of company-owned stores such as its first flagship store in China, unveiled at a news conference on Saturday, and franchised locations. The new Shanghai store is a sleek 140-square-meter shop in the Nanjing West Road shopping district.
December 10, 2019 by scmp.com
Hong Kong to impose full ban on e-cigarettes and other new tobacco products
Hong Kong is set to impose a complete ban on e-cigarettes and other new tobacco products in an unexpected U-turn by the government, which had previously proposed only to restrict their sale to minors.
February 19, 2019 by scmp.com
Hong Kong vaping ban is based on sound reasoning: but it could go further
I am writing in response to Alice Wu’s commentary on the government’s recent e-cigarette ban, “E-cigarette ban is clueless, elitist government at its worst (February 17)”. [...] Ms Wu’s interpretation of the research paper she cites is misguided. The observed effect of e-cigarettes on smoking cessation is due to regulation of the amount of use and close monitoring of the subjects by clinical professionals. [...]
February 19, 2019 by cnn.com
War on e-cigarettes: Hong Kong intends to jail vaping offenders. But will it make people quit?
Robert Chan lit his first cigarette aged 18. He quickly became hooked, smoking 15 a day for more than a decade. [...] Two years ago, on his 30th birthday, Chan started using a device that heats tobacco -- instead of burning it -- to release a nicotine-laced vapor.
Chan is one of the 35 million people around the world believed to be using e-cigarettes or heat-not-burn products, according to Euromonitor.
"I wanted to stop smoking but I wasn't quite ready to quit nicotine yet," he says. [...]
February 18, 2019 by scmp.com
Hong Kong’s bizarre e-cigarettes ban will boost traditional tobacco products rather than reduce smoking
The government’s war on e-cigarettes is simply bizarre – and that’s putting it nicely. Of all the unhealthy lifestyle choices available to – or forced upon – Hongkongers, why are e-cigarettes the only item being targeted? The biggest beneficiaries of the ban, traditional tobacco companies that have not invested in researching and developing new alternatives, can now laugh all the way to the bank.
February 14, 2019 by scmp.com
Hong Kong health minister Sophia Chan compares e-cigarettes to an epidemic as she defends coming ban
Hong Kong’s health minister likened the e-cigarette trend to an epidemic on Thursday, as she defended the government’s push to remove alternative cigarettes from the market, saying they posed new challenges to the authorities’ drive to deter teenagers from picking up smoking. While seeking to prohibit the sale and supply of such products, Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee said, the administration was not pushing for a complete ban, as it was not trying to punish the users themselves.