China's tobacco industry generated 388 billion yuan (53.5 billion U.S. dollars) in taxes and profits last year, a 25 percent year-on-year increase, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) announced on Monday.

The STMA, who regulate the country's tobacco market and operates through the China National Tobacco Corporation, didn't elaborate on the growth.

By calculation, tobacco industry taxes and profits will account for about eight percent of the country's fiscal revenues, which are expected to reach five trillion yuan in 2007.

China, the world's largest tobacco producing and consuming country, represents more than a third of the global total on both counts. It has more than 350 million smokers, among which about 50 million are teens.

In addition, almost one million die from smoking-related diseases annually, according to the Ministry of Health.

The number may rise to 2.2 million annually before 2020 if the smoking rate does not decline, World Health Organization representative in China Henk Bekedam warned in May.

About 540 million Chinese suffer from the effects of secondhand smoke and more than 100,000 die annually from disease caused by passive smoking, the ministry said in its 2007 Report on China's Smoking Control.

China will ban all tobacco adverts and related promotions and sponsorships by 2011. Such promotion is a major source of misleading tobacco information communicated to teens.

(Xinhua News Agency January 15, 2008)