Recently, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine have jointly issued the Provisions for the Packing and Labelling of Cigarettes within the Territory of the People's Republic of China (the "Provisions"), which shall come into force as of the date of promulgation.
The Provisions apply to the packing and labelling of cartons and packets of all non-exported cigarettes produced within the territory of China, of imported cigarettes and of cigarettes sold in domestic duty-free shops. According to the Provisions, three sets of warnings shall be printed in standardized Chinese characters on the packages of cigarettes, stating that "smoking does harm to your health, please do not smoke in non-smoking areas", for example. The first set of warning shall be applied within the warning area on the front side of the package, while the other two sets of warnings shall be used within the warning area on the back side of the package in turn. Also, the Provisions state that the cigarette package shall be marked with information on smoke compositions and released substances according to Chinese national standards, such as the content of tar, smoke nicotine and carbon monoxide; such information shall be in Chinese characters with a height of 2.0 millimeters at least. Additionally, the Provisions make it clear that misleading words, such as "health care", "curative effects" and "safety", shall not be indicated on the packages and enclosed instructions for cigarettes.