Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

From the New York Times there is this: 

2.4 trillion

— That is how many cigarettes are sold in China each year, nearly half the global total.  Xi Jinping, the country’s president, may have quit smoking years ago.  But his government hasn’t done much to help its people join him.

Cigarette sales are falling in most countries.  In China, the numbers are going up. Smoking there rose 39 percent from 2003 to 2023, even as it fell 26 percent in the rest of the world. And while younger people are smoking less, older ones are smoking more, in part because it’s an inexpensive habit in China: A pack costs roughly $3. 

In contrast, if you want a pack of Marlboro Reds from my local bodega?  That’ll be $20.

Joy Dong, who reported on all this from Hong Kong, says it shows how powerful China’s state tobacco company is. It’s a literal monopoly: A single agency both regulates the cigarette industry and makes most of the smokes.

The government’s brand, the China National Tobacco Corporation, generated roughly $244 billion in profit and tax revenue in 2025. That’s about 7 percent of national government revenue and nearly what China says it spends on defense. 

Big numbers!

Smoke 'em if you got 'em...