An undated photograph posted recently online shows five schoolgirls smoking on a street in Foshan, Guangdong Province. [File Photo: China Daily]

A member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) has called for a smoking ban at the annual "two sessions", namely the CPPCC and the National People's Congress, to better promote tobacco control nationwide.

Jin Dapeng, the former chief of Beijing's Health Bureau and the current head of the Beijing Medical Association, raised the proposal during a panel discussion, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reports.

China is the world's largest tobacco producing and consuming nation. It is also one of the worst-damaged countries influenced by the tobacco industry. In China, about one million people die of smoking-related diseases each year. Smoking not only damages the health of smokers themselves, but also the people around them. To make matters worse, smokers place heavier burdens on the country's healthcare system, Jin said.

Jin said he hopes that the CPPCC members and deputies of National People's Congress who are currently smokers will stop the habit, especially during the annual "two sessions", to set a good example for other smokers.

China is one of the signatories of the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which took effect in the country in 2006.