Chinese are traditional smokers

I refer to Santi W.E. Soekanto's article in The Jakarta Post on Nov. 13, titled Tobacco war rages on ahead of treaty.

She wrote: "However, the meeting was actually about facing the giants themselves -- the international tobacco industry -- which pours billions of dollars into promoting cigarettes so aggressively that China alone has 300 million smokers, which is the equivalent of the entire population of the United States."

This is inaccurate. China had hundreds of millions of smokers even before foreign tobacco companies were allowed to advertise or market or even sell in the country back in the 1980s, when China began its open-door policy. Today, the market share of all foreign tobacco companies in China is less than 1 percent. In other words, over 99 percent of the 300 million smokers in the country today smoke local Chinese brands.

I am also interested to find out where the "billions of dollars" you quote came from. Was this a statistic from an official source such as the Chinese government, or was it simply an exaggeration based on a wild guess? And if the international tobacco industry invests money in promoting their products, why did you not also mention the promotional efforts of the local Chinese tobacco industry, which has 99 percent of the market?

Finally, you may not be aware that tobacco advertising in China has been banned for years, including TV, radio, newspaper and magazine ads, outdoor billboards, etc.

ALBERT CHAN, Vice President (Corporate Affairs, Asia Pacific), Japan Tobacco, International

Note: Thank you for your clarification. The figure you ask about was acquired from the World Health Organization (WHO).

-- Editor