"Ban tobacco advertising, sponsorship and promotion" is the theme of this year's World No Tobacco Day on Friday. This will be hard in China, because of the strong tobacco industry that stands in the way.

That the country's national TV station China Central Television still broadcasts ads for tobacco companies speaks volumes about how hard the battle will be. In a country where there are more than 300 million smokers, 24.6 percent of the world's total, and where the number of junior smokers has surpassed 5 million, tobacco control is urgently needed.

It is easier to pick up a bad habit than a good one. So it is easy for an actor who smokes in a movie or in a tobacco advertisement to entice impressionable young people to start smoking. However, it is very difficult for smokers to cultivate the awareness and the willpower to quit once they become addicted.