China's tobacco industry's communication practices: Paradoxes and proposals for public policymaking

The People's Republic of China's expanding tobacco-control efforts call for additional, urgent government action on two major fronts: (a) conducting comprehensive health-communication campaigns on the clinical and economic effects of tobacco use; and (b) requiring major policy changes in the (structural and administrative) relationships between the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) and the industry at large, that is, primarily, the China National Tobacco Company (CNTC). China's signing (in 2003) and ratifying (in 2005) the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) place it in a position to adopt some of the anti-smoking measures common in some developed nations. Even though the country's tobacco industry acknowledges publicly health concerns over its products, it engages in communication practices that are paradoxical, in that they circumvent public-health initiatives and the expanding regulatory regimes of product-risk reduction even as the government promotes tobacco use. That paradox calls for three public-policymaking proposals: to conduct more comprehensive, nationwide health-communication campaigns; to use legislation to reduce tobacco use; and to restructure the tobacco industry.