OPINION> Commentary
Stop expanding tobacco industry
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-12 07:43

We strongly oppose the huge investment in the tobacco industry for the sake of the people's health, says an article in Qilu Evening Post. The following is an excerpt:

The Fujian tobacco monopoly administration said recently that in the next two years, it will invest 3 billion yuan in building tobacco leaf fields and ovens for curing tobacco leaves. Actually, Fujian is not alone in doing this. China's tobacco industry is carrying out a large-scale infrastructure investment campaign, involving 60 billion yuan.

Smoking harms the health of people, which has determined that the tobacco industry is placed in an awkward situation and it can only be developed under the necessary checks. In fact, it is the common goal of the international community to completely remove the tobacco industry. To realize this goal, the government has levied heavy duties on tobacco and made great efforts to control smoking in public. Thus, it is totally unacceptable for the tobacco administration to invest huge amounts of money to expand the size of the tobacco industry at this moment.

Some might argue that the growth of the tobacco industry may stimulate the growth of related industries such as tobacco farming, which itself is a way of expanding domestic demand. That is true, but the problem is that we have to choose which one is more important: the health of the people or the interests of a small group. The 60 billion yuan investment should be used to guide tobacco growers to pick up other trades rather than to expand this unhealthy business.

(China Daily 12/12/2008 page8)