【中文标题】中国的烟草业手握重权
【原文标题】China's Tobacco Industry Wields Huge Power
【登载媒体】纽约时报
【原文作者】DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW
【原文链接】http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/world/asia/11iht-letter.html?ref=china
台上的新人开始接吻，这个长达一分钟的吻激起了宽敞宴会厅中新娘亲戚们的阵阵掌声。我为此而呆住了，同样让我呆住的还有我的儿子，我想他一定是从摆满葵花子、糖块和散装卷烟的桌子上拿起了一支烟。
因为突然之间，人们的目光不再聚集在台上，尽管一个小机器中喷出了五彩斑斓的泡泡，倾洒在新人身上。他们都盯着我右边的座位，露出可笑、还有一点点关心的表情。我马上转过来看旁边坐着的7岁的儿子，他的嘴上有一支未点燃的红双喜香烟，脸上满是开心的笑容。5月31日的世界无烟日刚刚过去两天，但是在这个早上11点的房间里，充满了烟雾和白酒这种酒精浓度50％的全国性饮料的浓烈混合味道。
中国有世界最多的人口，所以它可以轻易给自己很多方面都冠以最高级，其3.5亿的烟民数量和烟草工业的巨大规模让其它国家相形见绌。华盛顿无烟儿童项目驻中国的负责人Susan Lawrence说：“中国疾病防治中心发布的数据显示，中国的烟草工业规模比紧排其后的6个或7个国家的规模总和还要大。”
另外一件值得关注的事情是，这些烟草企业全部是国有的，它们给政府带来了巨大的利益。
相关数据是令人惊骇的。中国每年生产23亿支香烟，大部分内部消化。大约57％的男人吸烟，3％到4％的女人吸烟。
据卫生部控烟办官员李新华提供的信息，有十分之六的医生和教授吸烟，即使工作中也是如此。国际卫生组织估计，中国每年有100万人死于吸烟，到2020年，这个数字将翻倍。肺癌的发病率比1980年上升了465％，占癌症致死病例的四分之一。发展中国家吸烟的人数普遍呈上升趋势。
中烟集团的发言人张秀莲说，去年这个国有烟草公司的税利总和为760亿美元，比前年增长了82亿美元，其中610亿美元为纳税。143亿美元的净利润远超菲利普莫里斯国际烟草集团，这个世界最大的跨国烟草公司去年的利润是63亿美元。
当然，所有国家都对烟草业征税。但是Lawrence女士说，中国特殊的地方在于烟草和政府是“合二为一”的。中烟集团是国家烟草专卖局的一部分，而国家烟草专卖局是信息产业部的一部分。
她说：“这个产业的政治性质让它可以影响公共卫生政策的走向，而这在其它国家是决不允许的。”
烟草业渗入到经济领域的很多环节，它资助建设贫困地区的学校，在房地产、汽车、酒店和证券行业有大规模的投资。政府控制的环球时报报道，1月份，国家烟草专卖局宣布成立中维地产公司，注册资金4.4亿美元。中国学术界和市场分析人士纷纷警告，大规模的腐败现象会让国有资金在这种模式下存在巨大的风险。Lawrence女士说，烟草业“或许是中国回报率最高的行业”，即使是小城镇的烟草业员工也享受着奢侈的生活方式。
国家烟草专卖局副局长张保振警告，禁烟会影响社会稳定。他的言论如此的犀利和强势，忧心忡忡的政府不得不严肃对待这一问题。中国在内部安全方面的预算和国防预算几乎持平，去年分别是760亿美元和780亿美元。
Lawrence女士对这种所谓的“明显维护自身利益的游说方式”非常不屑。
她说，中国对烟草并没有明确、一致的态度，“卫生部承认烟草是巨大的健康危害因素”，由烟草引发的疾病的医疗成本每年都要增加227亿美元。
更重要的是，中国作为国际卫生组织里程碑式的控烟条约《国际烟草控制框架公约》的缔约国，必须要承担变化的压力。公约于2006年1月在中国生效，其效果也相当明显：政府把监督反烟条约实施的责任交给管理烟草销售的部门。Lawrenc女士指出，这么做本身就是违约的。当地的城市就像一只守护鸡舍的狐狸，等待卫生部来接手。
公约的压力在不断增加，它要求中国在明年2月之前，禁止在工作场所、医院和公共交通工具中吸烟。Lawrenc女士说：“中国在最后期限前尚无有效的举措，我恐怕它无法实现这个承诺。”这将会是严重违反公约的行为。
还有许多人希望中国彻底禁烟。
负责管理我当地一个停车场的40来岁的李先生和殷先生说，他们知道5月31日是世界无烟日。李先生点燃一支香烟说：“我在那天抽得比较少。”
到底抽了多少？他惭愧地笑着说：“大约1支吧。”
殷先生笑话他：“我从不吸烟，我忍受不了房间里香烟的味道。你知道戒烟最好的办法是什么吗？就是停止制造香烟。”
长安街上的贵族长安俱乐部是商界大亨们聚集的场所，总经理Aidan Duffy禁止在里面的公共房间吸烟。但这里设有吸烟室，在私人餐厅里也允许吸烟。
他说：“如果我发现有人在这里吸烟，我会告诉他把香烟灭掉，这是这里的规矩。”
原文：
BEIJING — As the newlyweds kissed onstage to excited applause from the crowd, a minute-long smooch that transfixed me as well as the bride’s relatives gathered in the capacious red dining hall, my young son must have picked up a cigarette from a plate piled high with loose white sticks rotating on the lazy susan in front of us next to the sunflower seeds and wedding sweets.
Because suddenly people at our table weren’t staring at the red-and-white festooned stage any longer, where iridescent bubbles poured over the still-smooching couple from two efficient little machines. They were staring at the seat to my right, looking amused, if slightly concerned. I turned to see my 7-year-old sprawling in his chair, an unlit Double Happiness cigarette in his mouth, a giant grin on his face. World No Tobacco Day, May 31, was just two days away. All around, the fug of cigarette smoke mingled with the oily fumes of baijiu, China’s 50-proof national liquor, at 11 o’clock in the morning.
China has the world’s largest population, so it easily lends itself to superlatives. Even so, its 350 million smokers and the sheer scale of its tobacco industry overshadow others. “The China C.D.C. likes to point out that the Chinese tobacco industry is bigger than the next seven countries combined, or maybe six,” said Susan Lawrence, head of China programs at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, in Washington. “It’s massive.”
The other striking thing is that it is wholly state-owned, delivering enormous profit to the government.
The figures are overwhelming. China manufactures 2.3 trillion cigarettes per year, inhaling most of them itself. About 57 percent of men smoke, though just 3 percent to 4 percent of women.
Six out of 10 doctors and professors smoke — at work, too, according to Li Xinhua, a tobacco control official at the Ministry of Health. The World Health Organization estimates that tobacco kills a million Chinese yearly and that the figure will double by 2020. Lung cancer is up 465 percent since 1980 and accounts for nearly a quarter of cancer deaths. Smoking is on the rise, as elsewhere in the developing world.
Last year, China National Tobacco, the state-owned tobacco company, generated $76 billion in taxes and profit, a year-on-year rise of $8.2 billion, according to a spokesman, Zhang Xiulian. Of that, $61 billion was taxes. The profit figure — $14.3 billion — far outstrips even Philip Morris International, the world’s largest transnational tobacco company, which posted net earnings of $6.3 billion last year.
Of course, all governments tax tobacco. What makes China different is that tobacco and government are “one and the same,” Ms. Lawrence said. The state tobacco company is part of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, in turn part of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
“The industry’s political status allows it to influence public health policy in a way that wouldn’t be allowed in most countries,” she said.
Tobacco extends deep into other parts of the economy. It sponsors schools in poor areas and has large investments in real estate, cars, hotels and securities. In January, the monopoly announced it had set up Zhongwei Real Estate, with registered capital of $440 million, the state-run Global Times newspaper reported. Chinese academics and market analysts warn that the scope for corruption is enormous and that state-owned capital is at risk from such setups. Tobacco is “probably the best-paid industry in China,” Ms. Lawrence said, and employees even in small towns often lead lavish lifestyles.
So powerful is the lobby that when the deputy head of the monopoly, Zhang Baozhen, warned that banning smoking would affect public stability, his comments were, apparently, taken seriously by a worried government that spends nearly as much on domestic security as on national defense — $76 billion and $78 billion budgeted for this year, respectively.
Ms. Lawrence dismisses what she calls a “very self-serving argument by the tobacco lobby.”
Nor is there a single attitude toward tobacco control in China. “The Ministry of Health recognizes it as a huge public health problem,” she said, with medical costs from tobacco-related diseases amounting to $22.7 billion per year.
Crucially, exerting pressure to change, China is part of the W.H.O.’s landmark tobacco-control treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It came into effect here in January 2006. Here too, though, tobacco’s influence is clear: the government assigned the same ministry that oversees tobacco to oversee the implementation of the anti-tobacco treaty. Doing that was a treaty violation, Ms. Lawrence pointed out. Domestic critics liken it to a fox guarding the chickens and are calling for the Health Ministry to take over.
Pressure is growing. The treaty commits China to banning smoking in workplaces, hospitals and public transport nationwide by next January, among other measures. “China is not on track to meet that deadline. I’m afraid it’s going to slip,” Ms. Lawrence said. That would be a second violation.
There are plenty of people who wish China were fully on board.
Two 40-somethings who run my local car park, Mr. Li and Mr. Yin, said they knew May 31 was World No Tobacco Day. Drawing on a cigarette, Mr. Li said: “I smoked less that day.”
How many did he have? “About one,” he said, smiling guiltily.
Mr. Yin laughed at that. “I’ve never smoked,” he said. “I couldn’t stand the smell in a room. You know the best way to stop smoking? Stop making cigarettes.”
Over at the blue-blood Changan Club on Changan Avenue, where China’s deal makers gather, the general manager, Aidan Duffy, doesn’t allow smoking in any public areas, though there is a smoking room, and smoking is permitted in private dining rooms.
“If I see someone smoking around here, I tell them to stop,” he said. “It’s the way things are going to go in the future.” |
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发表于 2010-6-11 13:18
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