tobacco business in china

When it comes to the tobacco business, bigger has long been considered better in China.

The numbers are staggering: China is the world's largest tobacco maker and consumer, boasting roughly 365 million smokers. The industry supports 3.6 million farmers, four million tobacco retailers and half a million related employees.

The industry lynchpin is China National Tobacco Corp., a state-owned monopoly that makes more than one-third of the world's cigarettes, and produces 43% of tobacco globally, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Beijing has long benefited from this arrangement, reaping $16 billion a year in industry tax payments, according to an academic paper published in Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine.
But now, there are signs that Beijing is taking a fresh look at the health consequences of this addiction, and asking how public health can be improved without toppling a giant, government-backed industry.