China finally includes e-cigarettes in it’s Tobacco Monopoly Law

The Chinese government has recently amended its Tobacco Monopoly Law to include the fast-growing market of e-cigarettes and vapes. The update was posted on the government’s website, signed by Premier Li Keqiang, ordered by the cabinet to be effective immediately.

The online statement for the order translated, “In order to strengthen the supervision of new tobacco products such as e-cigarettes, the State Council decided to make the following amendments to the “Regulations for the Implementation of the Tobacco Monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China”:

One article is added as Article 65: “E-cigarettes and other new tobacco products shall be implemented with reference to the relevant regulations on cigarettes in these Regulations.”

This is a decision that has been in the making for a while. Earlier in this year, regulators were in talks regarding the decision to bring regulations on e-cigarettes as they already do on tobacco products. The Chinese government has held over the Tobacco Monopoly Law giving them all the decision making power regarding the manufacturing, selling, and distribution of tobacco products in the country.

Previously, e-cigarettes and other e-products with tobacco as an ingredient were in a rather undetermined area, with no proper law or policy to regulate the companies that manufactured or sold such products. The growing interest in the product however, brought the government to consider making it a part of the Tobacco Monopoly Law.

This new change could mean different things for different companies in the e-cigarettes market, but it unanimously means they have to follow whatever the government’s policy demands. RLX Technology Inc. as a major player in the e-cigarettes market announced Friday, that it would make any changes that the new policy requires of the company.

A 2018 Chinese law dictates the sale of e-cigarettes to be banned for minors, in addition to a ban on online sale of the product. The government considers different aspects of the impact as well as demand of the product before deciding its regulations and rules. The same goes for any other aspect of business or industry in the country and its regulation. The Tobacco Monopoly Law is the Chinese government’s holistic policy that includes every aspect of the regulations within it.