Low funding cited as top reason for lackluster smoking control

A lack of funding has become a major obstacle to the enforcement of anti-smoking regulations in major Chinese cities, a Beijing law firm warned in a new report.

Of 15 major cities that provided information to Beijing Impact Law Firm last year about their difficulties in tobacco control, eight cited a shortage of money as the top difficulty.

Other major difficulties cited include lack of cooperation from violators, inadequate legislation and difficulty in punishing offenders because of lack of evidence, the report said.