Tobacco control in China: process, actors and policy initiatives

Abstract

China is not only a country with a large tobacco industry, but also the country with the largest population of smokers. The popularity of smoking in China and its social consequences have had a damaging impact on China's public health and even on its social development. Based on a review of literature, this article examines, from the perspective of public policy, the development of the tobacco control policy in China with a focus on policy actors and policy instruments. It reveals the dominance of the state actors and the underdevelopment of social actors in tobacco control policy in China. It concludes that the policy response to the threat of smoking is very weak and the tobacco control movement is reluctant in China due to the conflicting interests of the main actors in the tobacco control policy process.

Keywords:

• tobacco control
• policy actor
• policy initiative
• China

Acknowledgements

This project is funded by Committee on Youth Smoking Prevention, Hong Kong and the Research Project of the Key Research Bases of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education of China, Project no. 08JJD840203. The authors thank Mr. Chen Zetao for his excellent research assistance.