Society

The annual death toll from tobacco-related illnesses in China could triple over the next two decades, health experts warned ahead of a deadline for the country to implement international commitments to curb smoking that activists say Beijing has failed to meet.

Chart revenue from taxes and sales by China's state-owned tobacco monopoly, and compare cigarette market sizes by retail value in China and the U.S.

In a report issued Thursday, a group of 60 Chinese public-health experts, officials and economists argued that state ownership of the tobacco industry continues to stymie real progress in fighting tobacco—despite the mounting health and financial costs.

"While the national government may know it has a problem, it still doesn't understand that the long-term costs of this problem outweigh the revenue pulled in from tobacco sales," said Zhao Ping, deputy director general of the Cancer Foundation of China, who contributed to the report. The report's authors also include Hu Angang, an economist at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and Yang Gonghuan, a deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

he US envoy for policy on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) arrived in Beijing on Wednesday as part of a flurry of diplomatic activity to defuse tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Stephen Bosworth met Republic of Korea (ROK) officials in Seoul before heading to China. He is expected to meet with China's top nuclear negotiator Wu Dawei on Thursday and wrap up his Asian tour with a visit to Tokyo the same day.

While in Seoul, he expressed hopes that serious negotiations on the DPRK will start soon, AP reported. He didn't elaborate and it wasn't clear if he was referring to the stalled Six-Party Talks on nuclear disarmament or something else.

He said he would continue to coordinate closely with China.

China's economic planning agency unveiled regulations to prevent price collusion and monopolistic pricing practices, giving the government more tools to rein in inflation pressures.

The rules, which were announced Tuesday and take effect Feb. 1, come after Beijing said that ensuring price stability will be a priority, and that it was bringing competition and pricing practices closer to international standards following its adoption of a basic antimonopoly law in 2008.

"In some industries and areas, acts against competition law are increasing daily, and methods to restrict competition are being constantly updated. Various forms of price collusion and the abuse of monopoly position are seriously harming the legal rights and interests of consumers," the National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement.

The Anti-Monopoly Law implemented in 2008 contains general provisions against many of the measures covered in the new regulations, including price-fixing agreements between competitors and abusive pricing by companies with large market share. But Chinese laws are often taken as general guides, with further regulations sometimes needed to detail enforcement procedures.

In its statement Tuesday, the NDRC said the new regulations, by clarifying the rules, would help law-enforcement officials and also help companies to abide by the law. The NDRC said the new regulations "go an extra step in defining the boundary between legal and illegal, clarifying the criteria to abide by for major actors engaging in price competition."

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang Wednesday reiterated Beijing's pledge to support Spain in a meeting with the country's prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, as the two countries began signing $7.3 billion in deals.

Mr. Li, widely expected to become China's next premier within the next two years, told Mr. Zapatero that China wanted a united, strong and stable Europe, with Spain an important player in multilateral international relations.

"China is a long-term and responsible investor in the Spanish and European financial markets, and it has confidence and great interest in the Spanish market," Mr. Li said on the second day of a nine-day tour of the European Union in a show of support for China's largest export market.

The contracts cover 16 sectors, including energy, banking, telecommunications, transport and agriculture, but by far the most valuable one was the sealing of a previously announced $7.1 billion acquisition of certain Brazilian assets of Spanish oil firm Repsol YPF SA by China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec.