Major Western tobacco companies have helped China expand its power for years while seeking access to the lucrative Chinese tobacco market, a Daily Caller News Foundation review found.
Companies including Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco and Imperial Brands struck lucrative business deals with the China National Tobacco Company (CNTC), the Chinese state-owned tobacco monopoly, or its subsidiaries over the past 25 years. Along the way, the Western tobacco brands variously facilitated China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and helped advance the Chinese Communist Party’s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI), a global infrastructure and commercial investment strategy that some say undermines the U.S.-led international order
The Chinese tobacco market, 96% of which CNTC controlled as of 2022, is enormous: 2.4 trillion cigarettes are sold annually…
