ABSTRACT
The Chinese National Tobacco Corporation (C N TC ) and Western multinationals If we are to effectively assess the manner in which multinational tobacco companies have exploited China, we need to examine the way in which they are taking advantage of their merger with the Chinese National Tobacco Corporation (CNTC ). CNTC is the largest cigarette manufacturer in the world, and in 1992, CNTC produced 32.85 million cases of cigarettes (Hu, 1997, p.136). The Corporation has eight factories, 150 drying plants, 30 research institutes and employs 520 000 workers who produce 500 brands of cigarettes {Washington Post, 1996). Consequent upon pressure from the US, Beijing has agreed to allow multinational tobacco imports to compete with CNTC. Altogether CNTC has 30% of the world tobacco market. However, its principal market is domestic, and it is not accustomed to competitive sales. Rather it is used to allocation and distribution. Thus, if CNTC is to survive, it will have to become as ruthless as Western companies (Pollock, in Doll and Crofton, 1996). Mackay (in Hu, 1997) conjectures that CNTC will go the same way as all the Eastern European and South American monopolies that have been taken over by the multinational cigarette companies.
