China has amended its laws so that vaping manufacturers and sellers fall under the authority of the country’s State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA).
The industry will now be tightly controlled by the authoritarian government’s regulators.
The change was ordered by the State Council (cabinet) and signed off by Premier Li Keqian. It was announced last Friday, according to Reuters. The new policy has been expected since the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released draft rules in March. It takes effect immediately.
The STMA completely controls the tobacco industry in China—both regulating the product and selling it. The monopoly administration is actually housed in the same building as the China National Tobacco Corporation (usually called China Tobacco), which is the largest cigarette manufacturer in the world. Both are run by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Jim McDonald – Vaping360 – 2021-11-29.
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