Smoking in China
In China, smoking and the sale of cigarettes is legal, and they can be purchased online, but buying 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%. 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
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.
February 13, 2019 by scmp.com
Hong Kong pushes ahead with blanket ban on e-cigarettes, with maximum penalty of six months in jail and HK$50,000 fine
A bill to amend the Smoking Ordinance targeting alternative cigarettes, which the government hopes will nip the habit in the bud before it becomes entrenched in the city, was submitted to the Legislative Council on Wednesday [...]
The near-total ban makes good on a pledge by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in her second policy address. Her remarks back then sparked debate over whether such measures would be effective in reducing smoking, and raised questions about the administration’s drastic change in policy from regulation to a ban.
December 21, 2018 by thejakartapost.com
Ban on smoking in public places faces new problem - e-cigarettes
E-cigarettes are increasingly used by smokers in China, but there are currently no national regulations on their use, China Daily reported Thursday.
The Beijing Tobacco Control Association has received a growing number of reports and complaints about e-cigarettes being used in public places. However, the existing control regulation in the capital city covers only traditional tobacco products that are lighted, the report said.
December 21, 2018 by theregister.co.uk
Introducing 'Happy Quit', where Chinese smokers are text-spammed into nicotine abstinence
Distracting and nagging text messages help smokers stop smoking, Chinese researchers have found.
In a clinical trial, smokers who agreed to join a cessation programme were divided into three groups. One received a high volume (five a day) of cognitive behavioural therapy-based personalised SMS messages, another a lower volume of the same messages (one to three a week), and the control group received none at all.
The groups blasted by texts reported more success at giving up than the control group.
November 20, 2018 by scmp.com
Hong Kong’s burgeoning e-cigarette industry on the precipice as city mulls total ban
In just over two years Thomas McRae watched his business expand from an online shop to three stores in Kowloon and on Hong Kong Island. He sells e-cigarettes, which have taken off in a big way in the city and worldwide in recent years.
The Hong Kong Vape Association, founded in 2015, now has about 100 members, covering around 50 shops, 20 wholesalers and 30 manufacturers of e-cigarette products.