China aims to sell 6 billion cigarettes but tells people to quit smoking. What does it want?
- State-owned China National Tobacco says it expects to hit sales goal despite government’s efforts to get people to smoke less
- Smoking-related illnesses cause about 1 million deaths a year in China
China’s state-owned tobacco producer said it will meet its annual sales target this year, official media reported on Wednesday, raising questions about the sincerity of Beijing’s effort to improve public health by encouraging people to smoke less.
China National Tobacco Corp, the world's largest maker of tobacco products by revenue, announced during its annual meeting in Beijing last week that it will reach its sales target for this year of 47.5 million crates of cigarettes, up 0.2 per cent from a year ago, state-controlled Beijing Youth Daily reported.
By the end of the year, sales compared with a year earlier will be up by 122,000 crates – or 6.1 billion cigarettes, according to figures cited by the official newspaper of the Communist Youth League committee.
In 2017, China National Tobacco had sales of 47.4 million crates, up 0.8 per cent from 2016.
The company’s upbeat forecast comes as smoking-related illnesses cause the deaths of about 1 million Chinese per year.