China: celebs anti-smoking campaign

Basketball star and soprano to push for end to smoking

China ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2006, but Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu recently admitted that China is making only ‘slow progress’ in implementing it. Tobacco output has increased by 18.4% between 2004 and 2008, with the tobacco industry encouraged in many places as a major contributor of tax and revenue of local governments.

In the latest effort to raise public awareness of the dangers of smoking, and encourage a new anti-smoking culture, China’s most successful Chinese NBA player – Yao Ming – and well-known soprano – Peng Liyuan – are to appear in advertisements. They will encourage people not to smoke in public places (which is already banned, but rarely implemented), and  to give up the habit.

Tobacco use kills about a million Chinese each year, with a further 540 million affected by passive smoking.

Source: Xinhua, 12 October 2009.

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