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investigation

Smoking for the state

In 18 countries, tobacco isn't just big business — it's government business. A global investigation examines how state-ownership of cigarette companies influences public health.
The Examination
Illustration: Rocco Fazzari
The Examination
Big tobacco
Smoking for the state

How Imperial Brands’ contract kept cigarette prices low in Laos — while secretly enriching a political insider

The deal delivered millions to an in-law of the former president, Bounnhang Vorachit, while blocking tobacco tax hikes for 25 years.

June 17, 2025
The Examination
Big tobacco
Smoking for the state

 Big Tobacco was forced to stop marketing ‘low tar’ cigarettes. In China, sales are booming.

With deceptive health appeals, China Tobacco finds growth amid global slowdown.

August 15, 2024
The Examination
Big tobacco
Smoking for the state

How Philip Morris International secured a stake in one of the world’s few growing cigarette markets

The tobacco giant and its longtime business associate quietly gained a major foothold in Egypt, as the country sold off its stake in its state tobacco monolith.

May 8, 2024

Why you’d want to make a company more efficient whose primary product kills half its customers is beyond me.

The Examination
Big tobacco
Smoking for the state

How China became addicted to its tobacco monopoly

For two decades, China Tobacco has undermined a landmark anti-smoking treaty. Millions more deaths are predicted as a result.

September 13, 2023
Illustration of smokers outside China's Great Hall of the People
Big tobacco
Smoking for the state

China Tobacco, by the numbers

Measuring the power and influence of the world’s largest cigarette manufacturer.

September 28, 2023

China's unwavering tobacco addiction

The Examination
Big tobacco
Smoking for the state

Cheap cigarettes, misleading marketing and interference by a tobacco monopoly

Six ways China has side-stepped the global anti-tobacco treaty

September 13, 2023

2.4 trillion

cigarettes sold in China in 2022 – roughly equivalent to the number sold in the next 67 countries combined

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