China to Ban All Tobacco Advertising by 2011

Advertising of tobacco, including promotions and sponsorship, will be banned across China by January 2011, according to a leading non-governmental organization.Xu Guihua, deputy leader and secretary-general of China’a Association on Tobacco Control announced the deadline in a public report on China’s implementation of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province in China.However, an official with the Advertising Supervision Department of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce said on Tuesday that he could not comment on the time schedule.

The deadline was confirmed by Jiang Yuan, deputy head of the State Tobacco Control Office affiliated to the Ministry of Health, who said the timing should coincide with China’s commitment as a signatory to Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.The WHO convention requires signatories to ban tobacco advertising and related promotions and sponsorships within five years of its ratification by signatory states.

China joined the international fight against tobacco consumption when it signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control of the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2003. It ratified the convention in October 2005 and the convention came into effect on January 9. 2006, although implementation of the convention is not obligatory.

Xu blamed the lack of a national law prohibiting smoking in all public places for China’s laggardness behind other countries in tobacco control.

China is the world’s largest tobacco producing and consuming country, accounting for more than a third of the global total on both counts. It has more than 350 million smokers and almost one million die from smoking-related diseases each year, according to the Ministry of Health.About 540 million Chinese suffer the effects of secondhand smoke and more than 100,000 die annually from diseases caused by passive smoking, said the ministry’s 2007 Report on China’s Smoking Control.

At present, smoking is banned in cinemas, libraries, song and dance halls, and conference rooms in the country. Only 28 cities on the mainland of China are free of advertising on tobacco. As the host of the 2008 summer Olympic Games, Beijing has been waging a campaign for a smoke-free Games.

In April, municipal government departments of Beijing, including the bureaus of health and commerce, issued a circular asking all catering businesses to implement tobacco controls. By June next year, smoking bans should be enforced in all hotels that provide services for athletes and other workers of the Olympic Games, all competition venues and restaurants in the Olympic Village in China. Large and medium-sized restaurants in the city should also make at least 75 percent of their floor space non-smoking.

2008 Olympics: Chinese preparations for hosting the Olympics

Like all host cities before it, Beijing has gone about making improvements on the city in order to show its best face to the world. Aware of critics and concern about human rights, air quality and political unrest, among other issues, the Chinese government has taken steps to remedy some matters, and silence others. Since 2001, when the Games were awarded to China, leadership has moved with intent and determination to show the West a united China, steeped in oriental and communist tradition, and most of all, in success.

There is no doubt that China is modernizing. Their need for steel, to name just one example, is driving the price of this resource ever higher; some estimate the price of steel will double every year for the next decade due solely to China’s needs. Electricity and growth are taking the countryside by storm unfortunately the effects of this tornadic growth is crippling the land. Because growth in China is coal-driven, air and water pollution are at an all-time high there; an estimated 70% of Chinese waters are polluted beyond human use. Beijing is, according to satellite information, the most polluted city in the world. While Beijing pledged to be green’ for the Olympic Games, meeting the World Health Organization’s 80% smog-free minimum by the time the Games start, it is unlikely that it will happen. Despite precautions, changes in fuel, increased public transportation and multiple studies into the problem of air pollution from Beijing and surrounding areas, the city simply isn’t meeting the goal. This will introduce new difficulties for both spectators and athletes.

The Chinese government has done a good job on face-lifting’ the city. Gray, bland buildings have been repainted, flat roofs replaced with more attractive sloped ones and ugly single level housing hidden behind ancient-looking walls covered with brightly colored murals. New hotels have sprung up in the city. Du Jiang, Director of Beijing Tourism Bureau stated that over 110 hotels have been constructed in Beijing in preparation for the Olympic Games. “with a majority of them targeting high-end guests.” Beijing hotels are expected to accommodate about 550,000 guests per day during the Olympics.” In an already crowded city, one has to wonder where the space for such an explosion of accommodations fit. The answer is not what one might hope, but certainly not unique to Beijing. An estimated 1.7 million people have been displaced from the city, forcibly removed and relocated to make way for stadiums, accommodations and other needed space. This isn’t the first time it has happened, however; in Seoul, South Korea citizens, mostly poor, were displaced in 1988 to make way for the Olympics there.

Government scrutiny is, itself, being scrutinized. With a State Department warning about surveillance issues in hotels, bathrooms, restaurants and other private and public places, westerners worry about their freedoms being stripped, at least to some degree, during the Games. Chinese officials state emphatically that the assertion is untrue, and are considering lifting restrictions on Internet access for foreign journalists covering the Games.

Preparations continue, with both positive and negative effects. The clock is ticking on China, and the world is watching, and waiting, as August 8 approaches.