The Chinese Association on Tobacco Control has suggested to the Ministry of Civil Affairs to ban donations made by the tobacco companies in the coming Charity Law. The data released by CATC said that the charitable donations have become the main form of sponsorship by the tobacco companies.
There were about 123 charitable donations among 149 sponsorships by the tobacco companies from January 1, 2013 to April 30, 2013. This information was gathered from micro blogs and the Internet. The donations include those made to schools, disaster victims and the poor.
The CATC has urged the Ministry of Civil Affairs to ban charitable donations made by the tobacco firms through legislation. The government sectors and social organizations are urged to stop receiving donations from the tobacco companies. Moreover, tobacco companies do brand promotions in traditional media like billboards, papers and magazines and also in new media like the internet and micro blogs.
It has also been suggested by the CATC to revise the Advertisement Law and the Provisional Regulation on tobacco advertising and to ban tobacco advertising in all forms of media, including new media. This move has been taken in order to discourage advertising of the products.
