Chinese tobacco firms 'use schools to promote smoking'

More than 100 primary schools in China are sponsored by tobacco companies in a move described by anti-smoking campaigners as hunting for the next generation of smokers.

The schools often have the names of Chinese cigarette brands, such as Zhongnanhai or Liqun, over their gates and in some cases have promotional slogans in the playground.

"Talent comes from hard work - Tobacco helps you become talented," says one slogan, in foot-high gilt letters, on the front of the Sichuan Tobacco Hope Primary School.

The school, which was built by the tobacco company after an earthquake in 2008, also bears the green leaf logo of China Tobacco, the country's powerful state-controlled monopoly.

China Tobacco is the world's largest manufacturer of tobacco products, with more than 900 brands, and is owned by the Chinese government. China is the world's largest tobacco market, with as many as 60 per cent of its men smoking. Regulations to prevent smoking in public places, including schools, have been widely ignored and the World Health Organisation estimates that two million Chinese will die each year of smoking-related diseases by the end of the decade.

"It is not just primary schools, they also fund secondary schools and universities. But it is difficult to count them, because the Ministry of Education would not help us," said Wu Yiqun at the Think Tank Research Centre for Health Development.

"We know there are definitely more than 100 primary schools though."

There are 16?million smokers under the age of 15 in China, 6.3 per cent of the youth population, according to the Chinese government.

Many of the primary schools funded by tobacco companies are part of China's Hope project, a charity that has rolled out schools in the countryside for the poor.

"The parents are actually very supportive of the tobacco companies," said Mrs Wu. "They think they are giving something back to society, but they are just using charity as a front."