The Chinese city’s new goal is to have less than 16% of the population over 15 years old smokers by 2030
A pioneer in tobacco control legislation in China, the city of Shenzhen wants to reduce its smoking population by 250,000 people over the next 4 years.
The ambitious target comes after the southern Chinese technology hub received recognition from the World Health Organization for its aggressive anti-smoking efforts, which will now be scaled up regionally in the Greater Bay Area.
Wu Hongyan, director of the municipal health commission, announced on Thursday (May 28, 2026) that the city’s smoking rate among people aged 15 and over fell to 17.4%, well below China’s national average. Under Beijing’s Healthy China Action Plan, the goal is to reduce the rate to less than 20% in the country by 2030. Shenzhen has already surpassed that goal.
The city’s next milestone, set out in its local health plan, is to lower the rate to below 16% by 2030. With Shenzhen having 18.25 million inhabitants at the end of 2025, achieving this goal will require convincing around 250,000 residents to quit smoking over the next four years, according to estimates by the health commission.
On Thursday (May 28), the WHO presented the 2026 World No Tobacco Day Award to the Shenzhen municipal government, in recognition of its contributions to tobacco control. It is the 6th city in mainland China to receive the honor.
Historically, tobacco control in China has faced strong resistance because of the powerful interests of the state-owned tobacco industry. The country still does not have a national law prohibiting smoking in public places, leaving governments responsible for developing their own policies, many of them without strict punishments or broad coverage.
Even Shenzhen faced difficulties at first. Although it passed China’s first local tobacco control regulation in 1998, the law was widely treated as “worthless paper” after the city went more than a decade without issuing a single fine.
“In recent years, Shenzhen has explored and formed a ‘7-pronged model’ for tobacco control, with the aim of moving from pilot programs to a national model”Wu said on Thursday. The framework covers legislation, enforcement, standards, public education, technology, response to complaints and joint social action.
The turning point came in March 2014, when Shenzhen revised its tobacco control rules and established clear legal responsibilities and punishments for violators. In 2019, the city expanded the ban on e-cigarettes and outdoor areas near public transportation stations.
Last year, Shenzhen introduced China’s first local standard for smoke-free environments, transitioning rules to standardized, assessable metrics ranging from signage to tobacco advertising bans.
Over the past 12 years, Shenzhen has mobilized enforcement officers 2.25 million times, investigated 160,000 violations and issued several fines considered landmarks because they were the first of their kind in China, according to Wu. The city also operates a mini-program on WeChat through which citizens can report violations, which has led to the resolution of nearly 40,000 complaints.
Shenzhen now exports its model to the wider region. On Thursday, 9 mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area, alongside Hong Kong and Macau, launched a joint initiative to build a “Great Smokeless Bay”.
The coalition plans to strictly enforce local tobacco control laws, ensure indoor public spaces and smoke-free border crossings, establish regular communication channels, and crack down on tobacco distribution, including banning self-service cigarette vending machines and blocking illegal logistics channels.
This report was originally in English by Caixin Global on May 29, 2026. It was translated and republished by Poder360 under mutual content sharing agreement.
