Experts say tobacco control program 'smoky'(2)

China ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2003, pledging measures to curb tobacco use -- including placing clear warnings regarding the harmful effects of tobacco on cigarette packs.

By October, 63 countries and regions that have ratified the FCTC had used or decided to use graphic images on cigarette packs.

With ugly images of bleeding brains, blackened teeth and rotten lungs, cigarette packs can show the harm of smoking, experts say.

In an annual tobacco control report released on Tuesday, Thinktank urged making the graphic warnings a compulsory part of cigarette packaging.

Gregory Yingnien Tsang, a renowned tobacco control activist, said the program also failed to increase excise duties levied on cigarettes, another method that has proved effective in reducing smoking.

According to Thinktank's annual report, excise duties account for 65 to 70 percent of the retail sale price for cigarettes in other countries, while the share in China is only 40 percent.

It is widely believed that higher excise duties will help reduce sales of cigarettes, and therefore force smokers to quit or smoke less frequently.

China has more than 300 million smokers, while another 740 million people are regularly exposed to second-hand smoke, official figures show. About 1 million Chinese die from tobacco-related illnesses annually.

The tobacco industry, which contributes nearly a tenth of the country's tax revenues, is seen as an economic pillar in some provinces and regions, leading some to believe that it has interfered in national tobacco control efforts.

In recent years, authorities have made efforts to control tobacco in order to create smoke-free hospitals and smoke-free cities.

"A major report delivered at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) vowed to improve people's health. A tougher anti-smoking campaign is definitely needed to achieve that goal," Tsang said.