This research chooses the method of narrative literature review to analyze the barriers in implementing tobacco regulatory policies in China and explore the strategies that can overcome these challenges. China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of tobacco products. Although the prevalence of cigarette smoking declined from 34.5% to 27.7% between 1984 and 2015, the reduction over the 30 years has been slow. Therefore, effective tobacco regulatory policies are necessary. However, as the tobacco industry is one of the major sources of government revenue and an indispensable part of the national economy, the implementation of tobacco regulatory policies faces many challenges. In terms of the institutional dimension, the ambiguous attitude of national institutions and tobacco companies’ development strategies impede the enforcement of tobacco policies. In addition, the primary economic barrier to tobacco control is the unwillingness of the government to raise value-added tax on tobacco. Finally, the social customs of exchanging individual cigarettes and gifting packaged cigarettes among adults and juveniles in China hinder the implementation of tobacco regulatory policies. In this case, a combined strategy of top-down and bottom-up approaches can remove these barriers, such as using the authoritative power to control tobacco use and raising non-smokers’ awareness of smoking risks and public education.

Abstract:This study investigates what conditions, in combination, drive varying levels of intensity of inter-organizational activities regarding cooperation on environmental governance in nine urban agglomerations in China. This article distinguishes strong and weak inter-organizational activities; and through a literature review, the article distills five conditions influencing inter-organizational activity, including vertical meta-governance, horizontal meta-governance, leadership, autonomous capacity disparity and environmental status disparity. While these conditions are clearly unique, it is unclear if any of these conditions are necessary or sufficient and how they work collectively, for varying degrees of inter-organization activities. Through the method of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), the article examines this question. The findings suggest that strong horizontal meta-governance and strong leadership are both necessary conditions for strong inter-organizational involvement in joint environmental governance. Small disparities in autonomous capacity and environmental status are sufficient conditions for strong inter-organizational activities. Strong vertical meta-governance is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition. The QCA results reveal that local authorities should put energy in developing their formal structures favorable for cooperation and that local leaders should develop skills to facilitate joint actions between member cities in an agglomeration.