More Chinese Teenagers Buying Cigarettes Online

"Refraining from selling cigarettes to young people is not just a slogan," said Yang Gonghuan, former deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, although the China Daily reports otherwise, saying that more and more young people are using Taobao to get around tobacco sales laws.

Zhang Yunlong, a 16-year-old from Shenyang, Liaoning province, admitted he is a chain smoker.

"I've been smoking for more than two years and have been buying cigarettes online for one year," he said.

Zhang said it takes him only a few minutes to complete his online purchases.  "Owners of online stores don't care if you are an adult or adolescent. You only need to pay the money and they will deliver the cigarettes to you.".

By claiming to sell cigarette packaging, the online stores aren't required to check the age of the people who buy their products.  The online stores often have cheaper ciggies on sale, with discounts as well as a strict "no questions asked policy"  that makes it easy for underage kids to fuel their nicotine habit.

The story goes on to claim that four out of ten high school students smoke, and the numbers of smokers in China isn't about to start declining, six months on from the smoking ban that was issued at the end of 2012 following the a "re-commitment" to the smoking ban that had already been announced a year before, Chinese smokers still don't care about lighting up in public places.  Typically, government officials are more concerned with lower tax revenues being reaped as a result of illicit tobacco sales online.