Anti-tobacco campaigners have criticized the government's 2012-15 tobacco control plan as a "weak and futile" attempt to curb the habit.
Health Minister Chen Zhu was recognized by the World Health Organization for his efforts in combating nicotine addiction.
Cigarette tax should be increased to combat nicotine addiction in the world's largest tobacco consumer and producer, the World Health Organization chief said.
Chinese smoked more cigarettes in the first half of this year, helping the tobacco industry's profits to climb rapidly despite the current economic slowdown.
Shi Jiazhuang Tobacco Monopoly Bureau destroyed counterfeit cigarettes at the venue of Hebei Lingda Environment-Friendly Energy Co in Shi Jiazhuang on March 30, 2012.
It is time for our government to quit "smoking", yet the relationship between the tobacco industry and academic institutions affects policy-making.
A Chinese tobacco research program has been left aside in an application for a top science award amid extensive controversy over its studies in less-harm cigarettes.
Police have detained the head of Henan's tobacco authority as part of an ongoing corruption probe.
Unlike tobacco planters who make very little profit, bureau workers and officials can enjoy high incomes thanks to the monopoly sales mechanism.
The Ministry of Health has added its voice to a chorus of opposition to a tobacco research project being nominated for a prestigious national prize.
In the first two months of this year the profits of China's State-owned enterprises were down 10.9 percent year-on-year. But one industry at least bucked this trend.
Chinese scientists and scholars issued a letter of appeal on Sunday demanding a ban on tobacco technologies from winning any science and technology award.
Cigarette packages will now be displaying larger health warnings, part of government efforts to discourage smoking.
China's tobacco industry paid 752.96 billion yuan ($119 billion) in taxes in 2011, up 22.5 percent year-on-year, an official said Wednesday.
Xie Jianping, the so-called tobacco academician, should be removed from the prestigious Chinese Academy of Engineering, anti-smoking activists urged.
Taxes and profits created by China's tobacco industry continue to surge in spite of the central government's inclusion of a public smoking ban in the 12th Five-Year Plan and tobacco control measures taken by some local authorities.
Chinese policymakers should consider putting a brake on the growth of the country's tobacco industry, which produces one third of the world's cigarettes, a prominent economist and policy advisor has said.
China can use its control over the state monopoly to end tobacco industry interference in tobacco control policy-making in a country where more than 1 million people die of smoking-related illness each year.
Smokers in Hong Kong will have to pay HK$0.5 more per stick, equivalent to an increase in tobacco duty by 41.5 percent, the city's top financial official John Tsang announced on Wednesday.
China's tobacco industry paid 604.55 billion yuan ($93 billion) in taxes last year, up 16.95 percent year-on-year, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) said Tuesday.