Xi Jinping promised in 2012 to do something about China's smoking crisis. Fourteen years later, cigarette consumption has risen 39 percent since 2003, even as global sales fell 26 percent. The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration blocked a national indoor smoking ban and local tobacco bureaus have deepened their political grip, making meaningful reform nearly impossible.

The agency generated roughly $244 billion in profit and tax revenue in 2025, about 7 percent of national government revenue and nearly what Beijing spends on defense. It backed a $100 billion semiconductor fund and injected more than $1 billion into a major bank. Roughly half the revenue from each cigarette sold flows into government coffers.

Tobacco taxes accounted for over half of Kunming's city budget in 2024. After COVID-19, local governments became more dependent on tobacco revenue, giving bureaus even greater leverage against antismoking measures. Beijing ratified the WHO tobacco-control treaty in 2005 but has never enforced its strictest provisions.