More than 100 primary schools in China are now sponsored by tobacco companies on the hunt for the next generation of smokers, according to antismoking campaigners

The schools often bear the names of Chinese cigarette brands, such as Zhongnanhai or Liqun, over their gates and in some cases have 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 local tobacco company after a deadly earthquake in 2008, also bears the green leaf logo of China Tobacco, the country's all-powerful state-controlled monopoly, on its parapet.

China Tobacco is the world's largest manufacturer of tobacco products, with over 900 brands, and is owned by the Chinese government. China is the world's largest tobacco market and as many as 60 per cent of its men smoke.

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 – accelerating the need to find more young smokers.

"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. The figures were compiled by more than 60 prominent researchers in a report: Tobacco Control and China's Future.

"We know there are definitely over 100 primary schools though because those are the ones we managed to look up by searching for schools with cigarette brands in their names."

Anti-smoking campaigners described the sponsorship deals as “sickening” and “shocking”, and noted they broke the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which China ratified in 2005.

Cary Adams, chief executive of the Union for International Cancer Control, said: “Having just concluded a historic UN summit on non-communicable diseases where tobacco was highlighted as crucial to lessening the global burden of cancer, it is both shocking and disheartening to hear reports of such disregard for the health of so many young people.”

He added: “Governments need to be in the business of helping their citizens, not propelling this epidemic further.”

Amanda Sandford, research manager at the charity Ash, said: “Smoking among women in China is currently low compared to that of men. But tobacco industry sponsorshp of primary schools is a sickeningly blatent means of recruiting young girls, as well as boys, to a life of addiction to a deadly drug.”

She pointed out that about 1.2 million of China’s 300 million smokers died every year from smoking-related diseases, a figure expected to triple by 2030. There are now 16 million smokers under the age of 15 in China, 6.3 per cent of the youth population, according to the Chinese government.

Meanwhile, a survey of 12,000 schoolchildren by Peking University last year found that almost a third of boys between 13 and 15 have tried smoking and that the average age Chinese smokers have their first cigarette is 10.

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." Sponsorship of a Hope school costs 200,000 yuan (£20,000), she added.

Tobacco companies have also built a network of libraries in the countryside, including at least 42 primary school libraries in Xinjiang and 40 in Tibet. They also widely sponsor school sports events and entertainment shows and in some provinces hold competitions for the best teacher.

"Inside the schools, they often have branded uniforms and distribute cigarette-shaped sweets. Vendors near the school gates usually sell cigarettes one-by-one, rather than in packets," said Mrs Wu.

Last year, the Ministry of Education banned all advertisements for tobacco on the campuses of Chinese schools, but have found it difficult to implement the regulation on Hope schools, which are administered by another arm of the Chinese government.

Shackling the tobacco industry has proved next to impossible for the Chinese government, which relies on it for a huge slice of its tax revenues. In some tobacco growing provinces, such as Yunnan, the industry generates more than 40 per cent of the local government tax take.

(By Malcolm Moore and Stephen Adams, The Telegraph, 21/09/2011)