Big tobacco companies in the West have long supported China’s expansion of power, seeking access to China’s lucrative tobacco market, according to an investigation by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Over the past 25 years, companies such as Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, and Imperial Brands have entered into lucrative business deals with China’s state-run tobacco monopoly, China Tobacco Corporation (CNTC), or its subsidiaries. Along the way, Western tobacco brands have in many ways facilitated China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and promoted the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Chinese Communist Party’s global infrastructure and commercial investment strategy. Some people claim that he helped promote it. weaken US-led international order
CNTC accounts for 96% of China’s tobacco market controlled As of 2022, this number is huge. 2.4 trillion cigarettes are sold annually in the country, approximately 46% of global annual sales. According to To the Pulitzer Center. CNTC’s profits and taxes brought in about $213 billion to the Chinese state in 2022, just shy of China’s $214 billion defense budget for the same year, and why major Western tobacco companies are denied access to the Chinese market. There is little question left as to whether that is what they want. (Related: U.S.-funded research helps strengthen China’s military, Congressional report says)
A close-up photo of a cigarette taken on June 10, 2015 in Bristol, England. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
British American Tobacco is manipulated In pre-communist China, it was one of the companies that profited from access to the modern Chinese tobacco market.
Since the late 1990s, British Americans have been working to help China join the WTO, which would have boosted global trade and enriched and empowered the country. In exchange for encouraging China to join the WTO, British American Tobacco hoped to receive “preferential treatment” from the Chinese government on the back end as it sought to establish business in the huge Chinese market. .
“[I]If we are perceived as promoters of China’s accession, we may expect “preferential treatment.” Therefore, it is more accessible than its competitors with all the commercial benefits involved,” a British American Tobacco employee wrote in a 1997 article. email To a colleague. 2007 research paper An article published in the journal Tobacco Control said that British Americans “engaged in the most active lobbying efforts during China’s accession to the WTO.”
The same email also said that Philip Morris was “very aggressive” in seeking access to the Chinese market at the time.
China finally joined the WTO in 2001. In the nearly 25 years since then, China has repeatedly broken or ignored WTO rules for its own benefit. According to Based on a 2023 report to Congress from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
And British-American entered In 2013, it established a joint venture with a subsidiary of CNTC, which helped the company enter the Chinese tobacco market. As part of the deal, the new joint venture will take ownership of the State Express 555 brand of cigarettes, which is extremely popular in China and was favored by Chairman Mao Zedong, as well as the popular Shuangxi brand. According to In British American’s 2013 Annual Report.
These developments proved to be very advantageous for Anglo-Americans, who listed both State Express 555 and Shuang Xi as two of their “important strategic brands.” 2016 Annual Report. (Related: Chinese military company’s campaign to support large-scale tank national security bill before Senate vote)
A Chinese worker smokes a cigarette at a local market in Beijing, China, September 26, 2014. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
China’s tobacco industry officially became involved in Belt and Road in 2017, four years after British American Tobacco formed a joint venture with CNTC. According to Jennifer Fang, Research Fellow in the Global Tobacco Control Research Program and member of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University in Canada. CNTC is a major contributor to the Chinese government’s microchip development initiative, the Big Fund, and one of its subsidiaries partnered with another state-owned company in 2017 to acquire a major Kazakh bank in Belt and Road assistance. did. According to In the 2023 major research report published by The Exam.
“CNTC has been considering operating at an international level as a way to maintain revenue.” According to Go to the 2023 article from the University of Bath’s Tobacco Strategy Project. “As a state-owned enterprise, being more active overseas will also support the Chinese government’s global Belt and Road Initiative.”
The industry’s involvement in the Belt and Road suggests that it is a key industry that the Chinese state should leverage to pursue its goal of becoming the world’s dominant economic leader at the expense of the United States and its Western allies. are. According to Go to the July 2022 article in the Indo-Pacific Affairs Journal, an Air Force magazine.
Like British American, Philip Morris also sought to further penetrate China’s tobacco market following China’s accession to the WTO.
In 2005, Philip Morris reached Signed a unique agreement with CNTC to create a joint venture and expand production of Philip Morris Marlboro cigarettes. The joint venture also promoted Chinese cigarette brands such as Red Golden Dragon in overseas markets. According to Based on a 2010 report by an organization called the Tobacco Free Kids Campaign.
According to a report by the Tobacco Free Kids Campaign, Philip Morris produced approximately 700 million Marlboro cigarettes in China from August 2008 to the end of the year, while CNTC sold its own brand in countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic. supported. Red Golden Dragon cigarettes eventually accounted for approximately 2% of the Czech cigarette market by the end of 2008. (Related article: ‘Mega Conflict’: China’s military-linked pharmaceutical unit pays billions to taxpayer-funded scientists)
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Like British American Tobacco and Philip Morris, UK-based tobacco giant Imperial Brands has also adopted a strategy to tap into the Chinese market following China’s accession to the WTO.
empire brand created In 2003, we established a joint venture with Yunnan Tobacco, a subsidiary of CNTC.
The 2003 agreement preceded a 2004 agreement between Imperial Brands and a subsidiary of Yunnan Tobacco, under which the subsidiary acquired Imperial Brands under the Imperial West brand. Approximately 10 million cigarettes were to be manufactured and sold with marketing support. According to According to a 2004 report by China Daily, China’s state-run media.
Imperial Brands was established under a 2003 agreement in 2017, the same year China’s tobacco industry adopted the BRI. create It is a venture company with CNTC called “Global Horizon Ventures Limited.” This particular organization has allowed Imperial Brands to sell more Davidoff and West cigarettes in China, instead of pushing Chinese brands like Jade to overseas markets.
Among other things, these deals effectively allowed Imperial Brands to sell its own cigarettes in China in exchange for Imperial Brands, and enabled CNTC to expand into at least 16 other countries. According to Based on a July 2022 report by tobacco industry watchdog STOP.
Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and Imperial Brands did not respond to requests for comment.
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