Chinese smokers are trying e-cigarettes; foreign media says it could save many lives

Foreign media reports that Shen Fei, a construction worker in Beijing, used to smoke two packs of cigarettes a day but started trying e-cigarettes this year.

According to a report by the UK’s Sunday Times on July 26, he has now quit tobacco and left his construction job to focus on studying e-cigarettes. The 25-year-old Shen Fei said: “This is a health product and a new business opportunity.” He plans to open the first e-cigarette store in Beijing.

His wife, 24-year-old An Mingyang, said: “We also target non-smokers.” To realize their dream, she quit her teaching job at a kindergarten. “We won’t sell to children, but if someone is fifteen or sixteen and looks like an adult, why not sell to them?”

The report states that inspired by brands like “Lung Cleansing No. 1” and other e-liquid brands specifically targeting China, the couple is confident about the business opportunities brought by the e-cigarette trend, which has finally reached China, home to 300 million smokers, after being popular in other countries for many years.

In 2003, a Chinese pharmacist invented the e-cigarette. This device produces vapor containing nicotine but does not contain tobacco, tar, or the chemicals found in cigarettes. China now supplies 90% of the world’s e-cigarette devices.

However, the development of e-cigarettes in China has been challenging. Due to low cigarette prices, the absence of vivid health warning images on packaging, and government support for tobacco, along with lax enforcement of smoking bans, China has become a paradise for tobacco users—but this situation is gradually changing.

The report states that due to increasing health concerns, Beijing has also begun to enforce smoking bans—launched last month and set to expand to other areas—attracting the domestic market for e-cigarettes. There is almost no debate about the harms of e-cigarettes and the ease of access for teenagers.

The manufacturer of “Lung Cleansing No. 1” claims that the product was developed by a Nobel Prize-winning team. Alice Chen, a sales manager at Kamry Technology Co., Ltd. in Shenzhen, promised: “After a week of use, smokers will cough less and produce less phlegm.” Shenzhen is the hub of this industry, home to nearly a thousand e-cigarette manufacturers.

Monica Wang from the world’s leading e-cigarette company, Huanxin, said: “In China, we focus on several different markets, including the female market, but primarily target smokers.”

The report indicates that the industry is beginning to pay attention to the domestic market, with a clear sign being the recent first e-cigarette exhibition in the Chinese capital, where models and motorcycles gathered amidst swirling clouds of vapor, forcing many to step outside to breathe in Beijing’s smog for a moment.

Some local companies are using characters like Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie for marketing. However, the kind of provocative imagery, skulls, and coffins used by California importer Rip E-Cigarettes is what many Chinese companies hope to emulate. The company’s president commented on China’s enthusiasm for foreign e-liquids, saying: “This is like the battle between craft beer and Budweiser.”