Market & legal data in the tobacco alternatives sector in China

5th December 2024: China: The State Council Customs Tariff Commission recently issued the Methods for Levying Customs Duties, Value-Added Tax, and Consumption Tax on Imported Goods, effective 1st December 2024. The accompanying Tax-Free Limit Table for Items in Inbound Luggage specifies the tax-free limits for tobacco products: regular travellers are allowed 400 cigarettes (including heated tobacco consumables). Hong Kong or Macau travellers are limited to 200 cigarettes (including heated tobacco consumables). Frequent cross-border travellers (those who enter the country more than once within 15 days) may bring 40 cigarettes (including heated tobacco consumables), limited to once daily.
29th October 2024: China: As required by the Customs Law of the People's Republic of China, which obliges importers and exporters of nicotine-containing products to report import and export data to Chinese customs, the government released September 2024 import and export data for “Other Non-combustible Products Containing Nicotine”. This category includes items such as nicotine pouches. The reported imports were valued at $4,158,041, while exports totalled $629,538,899.
15th October 2024: China: The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration has released the “2024 Version of Tobacco Monopoly Licence Application Document Formats” to enhance the management of tobacco licences. The new formats take effect on 28th February 2025, replacing the 2017 notice “Further Standardising the Use and Management of Tobacco Monopoly Licence Administrative Documents”. It will apply to products such as e-cigarettes, heated tobacco and oral tobacco, requiring approval for licensing.
23rd September 2024: China: On 19th September, Zhang Jianmin – party secretary, director of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA), and general manager of China National Tobacco Corporation – met (accessible via VPN) with Philip Morris International CEO Jacek Olczak in Beijing. Deputy director of the STMA and party leadership group member Han Zhanwu also attended the meeting, along with officials from the Office of Foreign Affairs, Development Planning Department, Economic Operations Department, China Cigarette Sales Company, and China Tobacco International Company Limited. Both parties engaged in a friendly discussion, but no further details of the meeting have been provided.
26th July 2024: China: The National Tobacco Half-Year Work Conference was held in Beijing on 23rd and 24th July, press reports. In the meeting, authorities emphasised advancing the modernisation of the country’s tobacco industry and continuously strengthening the supervision of internal retail monopolies and of new, tobacco-related activities.
19th June 2024: China: According to the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA), on 12th June 2024, Zhang Jianmin – party secretary and director of the STMA, and general manager of China National Tobacco Corporation – met with a high-level British American Tobacco (BAT) delegation, who were visiting Beijing. Deputy director and party leadership group member Wang Gongcheng also attended the meeting, along with officials from the STMA's office (Foreign Affairs Department), Development Planning Department, China Cigarette Sales Company, and China Tobacco International Company Limited, press reports. They engaged in a friendly discussion, but no further details of the meeting have been provided.
17th June 2024: China: On 24th May, the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation held a seminar in Beijing to discuss the impact of tobacco and environmental taxes on tobacco control, press reports. The seminar brought together experts from the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the National Health Development Research Center (NHDRC) of the National Health Commission to discuss how to optimise these taxes to reduce tobacco consumption and strengthen control efforts. Discussions included insights from the “Tobacco Consumption Tax Reform and Comprehensive Industry Chain Research Report” released on 30th October 2023, which highlighted that China’s tobacco tax is below World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations and does not fully account for the environmental impact of the tobacco industry.
14th May 2024: US - Federal: The White House has released a statement on what it refers to as “China’s unfair trade practices concerning technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation”, which it says “are threatening American businesses and workers”. In response, president Biden is directing his trade representative to increase certain tariffs. These include the tariff rate on lithium-ion batteries (used in non-electric vehicles), which will increase from 7.5% to 25% in 2026. This would impact batteries used in vaping and heated tobacco products (HTPs).
10th March 2023: China: The Healthy China Action Promotion Committee instructed enforcement agencies to "severely crack down" on illegal underage and online sales. The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration is also planning to step up enforcement of the tobacco control rules, and increase oversight over production in order to ensure that only licensed manufacturers remain on the market.
31st August 2022: China (Macau): The Macau Legislative Assembly has unanimously approved a government amendment to the New Tobacco Control Law, which prohibits the manufacture, import, export, distribution and transport of oral tobacco and heated tobacco. Until now, both wholesale and retail have been prohibited in Macau, a special administrative region.
9th June 2022: China (Macau): Today, the Legislative Council of Macau supported the government amendment to the New Tobacco Control Law, which prohibits the manufacture, sales, import and export of oral tobacco.
3rd June 2022: China: Today, 3rd June, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration published a Q&A reiterating that heated tobacco is subject to the same rules as cigarettes and that no heated products have been approved for sale.

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