China’s Vaping Crackdown Hasn’t Stopped Its Producers … Yet

For e-cigarette startups steadily being frozen out by regulators around the globe, China seemed like an easy win. But now the world’s biggest tobacco market is joining the pushback against vaping, leaving companies scrambling. Fearful of its impact on teenagers, China has shifted its stance on vaping from benign indifference to crackdown mode within a matter of weeks. The country banned online sales on Nov. 1, and authorities are considering forbidding vaping in all public venues, a curb not even imposed on traditional cigarettes. That’s a particularly rapid regulatory turn, considering the government only banned vaping for those under 18 in August 2018.

Beijing joins a growing global chorus, from India to the U.S. to Brazil, moving against e-cigarettes. Once seen as a useful tool to help smokers quit, vaping is now linked to a mysterious lung disease that’s sickened 1,888 people and killed 37. That means companies that bet on vaping becoming a massive—and lucrative—successor to traditional cigarettes in China could see their hopes go up in smoke. “There’s a huge opportunity, but given a lot of the new regulations, there’s also a huge regulatory risk,” says Thomas Piachaud, a director at Kantar Consulting in Shanghai.