State Office: Cut off the raw and auxiliary materials of tobacco counterfeiting and the tobacco machinery supply chain and establish and improve the supervision system for the whole chain and process of tobacco production and operation

The Zhitong Finance App learned that on December 18, the General Office of the State Council issued “Opinions on Combating Illegal Tobacco-Related Activities” throughout the chain. The “Opinion” points out that the supply chain of raw and auxiliary materials and tobacco machinery for tobacco counterfeiting will be cut off. Establish and improve the supervision system for the entire tobacco production and operation chain and process, strengthen tobacco germplasm resource management and tobacco seed sales supervision, standardize tobacco leaf cultivation, acquisition, sales and import and export management, strengthen supervision of the production and sale of raw and auxiliary materials, tobacco machinery, etc., and strictly manage the disposal of discarded and confiscated tobacco-related products. Intensify the crackdown on illegal activities such as illegal handling of cigarette paper, filter sticks, tobacco wire harnesses, special tobacco machinery, and infringement of the intellectual property rights of tobacco-related products, and effectively stop tobacco leaves, tobacco pipes, raw materials and tobacco machinery from entering counterfeit dens. Strictly manage personnel in key production and operation positions in the tobacco industry and those leaving their jobs and retirees, and treat those involved in illegal smoking-related activities seriously in accordance with the law and regulations.

The original text is as follows:

The General Office of the State Council on a full-chain crackdown

Opinions on illegal smoking-related activities

China Administration Development [2025] No. 44

The people's governments of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, all ministries, departments and agencies directly under the State Council:

With the approval of the State Council, the following opinions are put forward in order to resolve outstanding issues such as tobacco counterfeiting, counterfeiting, and smuggling, strengthen supervision and enforcement in all aspects, crack down on illegal tobacco-related activities throughout the chain, continue to purify the tobacco market environment, and effectively safeguard national interests and consumer rights.

1. Concentrate efforts to crack down on counterfeit tobacco smuggling into the country

(1) Effectively promote the crackdown on the sources of tobacco counterfeiting abroad. Strengthen law enforcement cooperation between China and relevant countries, and incorporate the fight against smoke-related illegal activities into the daily work of diplomacy, law enforcement and judicial cooperation, etc. Strengthen investigation and risk warning of cross-border tobacco-related crime situations, carry out source attacks on counterfeiting dens, smuggling gangs, and key personnel in key overseas regions, focus on promoting overseas investigation and evidence collection, trademark protection and combating illegal production and intellectual property rights protection, etc., strictly crack down on counterfeiting Chinese tobacco brands from abroad, resolutely investigate and punish illegal tobacco flowing into and through China, and strictly punish illegal activities such as tobacco smuggling.

(2) Make every effort to crack down on maritime tobacco smuggling. Strengthen joint maritime and land law enforcement cooperation such as intelligence sharing, data exchange, and regional connectivity, and normalize anti-smuggling inspections and investigations along the coastline. Strengthen comprehensive management of key coastal areas, key wharves, key ships, etc., strengthen dynamic monitoring of key sea areas and major routes and intelligence sensing of suspicious ships, and accurately crack down on tobacco smuggling activities such as mother ship trafficking, China-bus transit, and land and shore distribution.

(3) Strengthen comprehensive remediation of smoke-related issues at land borders and ports. Strengthen supervision of overseas agencies, joint ventures, and overseas distributors of domestic tobacco companies, and strictly prevent the smuggling back of exported tobacco monopolies, and smoke-related products such as e-cigarettes and other new types of tobacco products. Strictly implement restrictions on the quantity of smoke-related products carried by inbound travelers. Improve and improve anti-smuggling safety lines at land borders, strengthen smoke-related risk management and control at ports, and strictly crack down on tobacco smuggling activities in forms such as smuggling along the border without customs, border people hiding in the market, customs clearance of false names, and carrying “watermen”.

(4) Strengthen tobacco-related control in various special regions. Continue to deepen the effective implementation of tobacco monopoly laws and regulations in various special regions such as customs supervision zones and comprehensive free trade zones, strictly implement regulatory requirements such as licensed production and operation and certified transportation of tobacco-related products, and strictly prohibit the sale of smoke-related products to special regions without permission. Comprehensively strengthen supervision of the entire process of production, transportation, storage, sales, import and export of duty-free tobacco products, and urge business enterprises to strictly implement the tobacco product management requirements in the domestic duty-free market. Continue to promote overseas trademark registration and customs intellectual property protection filing for Chinese tobacco brands, and adopt intellectual property customs protection measures in accordance with the law on inbound and outbound tobacco-related products suspected of infringing intellectual property rights. Regional carry-over of tobacco-related products is managed in accordance with customs transit transportation. Those who choose bonded self-transportation should strictly implement the tobacco monopoly product license system. It is strictly prohibited to use new customs supervision and customs facilitation policies to infringe intellectual property rights and smuggle tobacco in disguise through transit transportation, transit trade, etc.

(5) Strengthen tobacco risk management and control of inbound and outbound means of transport and international postal parcels. Strengthen the inspection of inbound and outbound means of transportation such as ships, vehicles, and aircraft, improve the effectiveness of inspection and interception of cross-border e-commerce logistics and international postal parcels, and investigate and punish the use of inbound and outbound means of transportation workers to smuggle tobacco using channels such as cross-border e-commerce logistics and international parcels in accordance with the law. Strengthen analysis and judgment on illegal activities such as overseas registration websites and the use of virtual currency to trade tobacco-related products, and accurately crack down on tobacco smuggling using new technology and new channels.

2. High-pressure crackdown on illegal smoking-related activities in the country

(6) Cut off the supply chain of raw and auxiliary materials and tobacco machinery for tobacco counterfeiting. Establish and improve the supervision system for the entire tobacco production and operation chain and process, strengthen tobacco germplasm resource management and tobacco seed sales supervision, standardize tobacco leaf cultivation, acquisition, sales and import and export management, strengthen supervision of the production and sale of raw and auxiliary materials, tobacco machinery, etc., and strictly manage the disposal of discarded and confiscated tobacco-related products. Intensify the crackdown on illegal activities such as illegal handling of cigarette paper, filter sticks, tobacco wire harnesses, special tobacco machinery, and infringement of the intellectual property rights of tobacco-related products, and effectively stop tobacco leaves, tobacco pipes, raw materials and tobacco machinery from entering counterfeit dens. Strictly manage personnel in key production and operation positions in the tobacco industry and those leaving their jobs and retirees, and treat those involved in illegal smoking-related activities seriously in accordance with the law and regulations.

(7) Strengthen the control of the sources of tobacco counterfeiting. Keep an eye on new trends in counterfeiting activities, and carry out in-depth crackdown, investigation and rectification at the source in response to the characteristics of counterfeiting activities in key regions. Strictly punish the organizers and gang leaders behind counterfeit production, dig deep into the “umbrella” behind it, investigate and punish the assets involved in the case in accordance with the law, and resolutely curb the backlash in tobacco counterfeiting. Promote “fight, prevent, control, control, and promote” in an integrated manner, strengthen the systematic rectification of tobacco counterfeiting problems in key regions, and squeeze the space for counterfeiting activities to the greatest extent possible.

(8) Prevent the spread of tobacco counterfeiting. Relying on a comprehensive social security management system, deepening grid management, strengthening surveillance and inspection of areas with weak supervision, such as remote mountain villages, border areas, and urban-rural integration departments, etc., to crack down on tobacco counterfeiting activities. Deepen cross-regional law enforcement cooperation and coordination to achieve early detection, early crackdown, and early treatment, and strictly prevent and control the transfer and spread of tobacco counterfeiting.

(9) Strictly investigate illegal storage, transportation and delivery of tobacco-related products. Strengthen daily supervision of smoke-related storage sites, and investigate and punish illegal storage of smoke-related products. Strengthen the supervision of tobacco related logistics channels, strictly prohibit the provision of logistics transportation for illegal smoke-related products, strengthen the control and investigation of interprovincial traffic routes, and make every effort to cut off transportation channels for illegal smoke-related products. Strengthen the supervision of tobacco-related delivery channels, urge delivery companies to implement delivery safety management systems, and strictly implement delivery limit regulations for smoke-related products. Strengthen tobacco-related enforcement by postal administration, tobacco monopoly and other departments, and enhance the effectiveness of joint supervision.

(10) Remediate illegal distribution and retail of tobacco-related products. Continue to strengthen supervision and enforcement in the field of distribution and retail, and strictly crack down on the sale of all kinds of illegal tobacco-related products. Remediate illegal acts of illegally operating real cigarettes and smuggling tobacco-related products with a tobacco monopoly retail license. Resolutely investigate and punish illegal acts of illegal acquisition, transportation, mailing, sale, harboring and smuggled tobacco-related products and other illegal acts of imported smoke-related products entering the market through abnormal channels. Deepen law enforcement cooperation with tobacco monopoly, market supervision and other departments, and resolutely investigate and punish the unauthorized operation of retail sales of tobacco-related products.

(11) Clean up and rectify the illegal sale of tobacco-related products on the Internet. Strengthen information sharing and collaborative enforcement with departments such as tobacco monopoly, Internet communication, public security, market supervision, etc., enhance the ability to monitor and warn information on smoke-related violations on the Internet, and thoroughly crack down on smoke-related illegal activities such as e-commerce, short videos, live streaming, and social networking platforms. Compile the principal responsibilities of Internet platform enterprises, and promote enterprises to independently clean up, promptly dispose of illegal Internet smoking-related information, and report the disposal situation to the supervisory authorities. Clarify the criteria for filing cases involving tobacco related illegal leads on the Internet, and investigate and punish illegal acts involving tobacco on the Internet in accordance with the law.

(12) Strictly investigate illegal activities involving e-cigarettes. Strengthen the supervision of e-cigarettes in all aspects, and strictly investigate and punish illegal activities such as illegal production, wholesale, transportation, and sale of e-cigarettes and the export and return of e-cigarettes. Further strengthen the crackdown and rectification of drug-related and addictive substances in e-cigarettes, and strictly crack down on illegal acts such as the manufacture and sale of “electronic cigarettes” and e-cigarettes that do not contain nicotine. Strictly implement e-cigarette industry policies, improve full-process supervision and product quality and safety systems, promote industry standardization, and accelerate the implementation of e-cigarette export information networks for customs and tobacco monopoly departments.

(13) Curb new illegal activities involving tobacco. The tobacco monopoly department closely follows the trend of tobacco-related products, promptly clarifies the attributes and scope of various types of tobacco-related products, strengthens the capacity building of inspection and testing institutions for various types of tobacco-related products, and improves price certification standards. It is strictly prohibited to manufacture and sell smoking-related products containing tobacco or nicotine, such as tobacco or nicotine in the mouth, without permission, and strictly crack down on illegal manufacture and sale of air tube cigarettes, tea cigarettes, cigarette smoke, etc., as well as products with similar appearance, usage, and main function to tobacco, and simple tobacco making machinery.

3. Strengthen support and guarantee

(14) Improve the system of regulations, policies and standards. Improve the tobacco industry vertical management system and the tobacco market credit supervision system, and improve the inter-departmental entrustment enforcement work mechanism. Strengthen the effective link between tobacco monopoly administrative law enforcement and criminal justice, and further clarify administrative law enforcement and criminal justice evidence conversion rules and case transfer standards. Improve the tobacco monopoly administrative enforcement standards system, improve the identification and testing standards for tobacco-related products, and strengthen the supporting role of smoking-related product identification and testing reports in handling smoke-related cases.

(15) Strengthen technical and equipment support. Strengthen the law enforcement equipment and capacity building needed by law enforcement agencies to crack down on smoke-related illegal activities, actively support the development and application of new equipment such as intelligent security inspection and identification equipment and rapid tobacco detection instruments, and raise the level of protection for grass-roots law enforcement equipment. Improve the database of domestic and foreign tobacco standards, and promote the organic integration of tobacco identification and physical evidence.

(16) Strengthen professional law enforcement capabilities. Tobacco monopoly and relevant law enforcement departments are speeding up the standardization and specialization of law enforcement teams in accordance with their tobacco-related supervision and enforcement duties and crackdown and control tasks, increasing the ability to discover, train, and use professionals, and enhance their expertise in big data analysis, intelligence research and judgment, and electronic evidence collection. Strengthen law enforcement supervision and comprehensively promote strict regulation of fair and civilized law enforcement.

All relevant departments in all regions should attach great importance to cracking down on tobacco-related illegal activities, fully carry out territorial responsibilities and supervisory duties to crack down on illegal tobacco-related activities, and implement this opinion in line with actual practice to ensure that the whole chain of work to combat smoking-related illegal activities is organically linked and that all tasks and measures are implemented effectively. Tobacco monopoly departments should strengthen coordination, work with relevant departments to strengthen follow-up, analysis, supervision and guidance, strengthen publicity, education and guidance, summarize and promote good experiences and practices, and promptly request instructions and reports on important matters in accordance with procedures.

General Office of the State Council

December 12, 2025

This article was selected from the official website of the “State Council”, Zhitong Finance Editor: Feng Qiuyi.