Jump to full article: The Australian (au), 2008-06-18
Author: Rowan Callick
Intro: CIGARETTE brands in China used to be endorsed by athletes, including by the heroic Olympic and world champion hurdler Liu Xiang, who carries the same weight of expectation at the Beijing Olympics as Cathy Freeman did in Sydney in 2000.
So not surprisingly, China is a world champion at smoking, with cigarettes as cheap as 30c for a pack of 20.
About 57 per cent of Chinese men smoke regularly. Last year China smoked about 2.1trillion cigarettes.
But that world supremacy is going to be challenged at the Beijing Olympics, which start on August 8. These Games will not be as green or as human-rights promoting as they set out to be. But they are going to deal China's powerful tobacco industry a serious setback and provide another nail in the coffin of big tobacco . . .
When health professionals urge higher taxes, Yang says the tobacco industry responded by presenting findings from so-called experts that an increased price would lead to increased sales, on the grounds that smoking would be reinforced as a more valuable pastime.
Xu Guihua, another formidable anti-smoking campaigner, is secretary general of the China Tobacco Control Association, a non-government organisation that receives much of its income from conducting campaigns on behalf of the Health Ministry. She operates from an office with an energetic team of volunteers. . . .
"The fight against tobacco is just getting going in China," Xu says. And she's counting on the Olympic spirit to play its part.
Liu Xiang is being a good sport. He said recently he regrets being part of the cigarette industry. But whether his many millions of fans follow his lead remains to be seen.
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