China is smoking

 The NYT has the story:

Xi Jinping Quit Smoking. China Still Cannot.
China’s tobacco monopoly has become so financially vital to the government that even its powerful leader has failed to curb the country’s smoking habit. By Joy Dong

"While cigarette sales have fallen across much of the world, China has moved in the opposite direction.

"Cigarette consumption in China rose 39 percent from 2003 to 2023, even as it fell 26 percent in the rest of the world. The 2.4 trillion cigarettes sold in China each year account for nearly half the global total, according to a report by a nongovernmental organization founded by former officials from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
...

"The failure to slow cigarette sales is a measure of the clout wielded by China’s State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, which both regulates the industry and operates the country’s dominant cigarette maker, the China National Tobacco Corporation.

"The company generated roughly $244 billion in profit and tax revenue in 2025, about 7 percent of national government revenue and nearly what China says it spends on defense."