WHO opens collaborating center in China to help with tobacco control

The WHO Collaborating Center on Tobacco and Economics opened on Thursday at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, which is expected to become a leading think-tank in tobacco taxation and tobacco control in China.

Through the center the university will intensify cooperation with the World Health Organization, related government departments, and universities and institutes at home and abroad in the research of economics policies concerning public health to promote the development of public health in China, Shi Jianjun, president of UIBE, said.

Wang Longde, chairman of China Preventive Medicine Association, said the center can spur the government to rely more on economics means to intervene in the production and consumption of tobacco, and serves as a platform for international exchange in the field.

China increased its wholesale tobacco excise tax from 5 percent to 11 percent in early May, the first increase of the tax in 6 years. Such a move has been hailed by many experts as an effective means to control tobacco consumption.

There are more than 300 million smokers in China, the largest number in the world, and more than 1 million people die each year due to smoke-related diseases in China, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

"The WHO is pleased to see the increase in tobacco tax," Bernhard Schwartländer, WHO Representative in China, said on Thursday at an event to mark the opening of the WHO Collaborating Center on Tobacco and Economics.

"Increasing the tobacco taxes and prices is probably the single most effective measure for reducing tobacco consumption, especially in the short term. It is especially important for young people because we have seen evidence that if tobacco products are expensive it is the young people who use it less because they cannot afford it."

"If young people don’t start smoking it is less likely they will start smoking when they are older, so tobacco taxation is like a vaccine that prevents young people from smoking," he said.

Rose Zheng, a professor of finance and taxation studies for the WHO Collaborating Center on Tobacco and Economics at UIBE, said tax now accounts for about 56 percent of the total price of cigarettes in China, compared to about 52 percent before the rise of the excise tax.

The number of smokers in China is estimated to be reduced by 4 million due to the rise of the tax, she said.