Six nominated leading tobacco companies were ousted from the final list of China Charity Awards because of the opposition from the public.
Netizen questioned the qualification of some companies on the list of nominees at the first, especially the six tobacco companies, according to the Xinjing newspaper. .
Companies on the list were selected according to the amount of money they donnated.The China National Tobacco Company was ranked number one.
China Charity Awards
But letters from domestic and international organization were all opposite to giving the awards to tobacco companies, which included the China Smoking Control Association,the China Disease Control Centre’s Tobacco Control Office and the World Health Organisation.They said that it would violate the Tobacco Control Framework Treaty and harm the international image of China if the awards was given to the tobacco companies.
Wang Zhenyao,the Civil Affairs Bureau Social Welfare and Charitable Activities Promotion Office director was interviewed by Beijing News, said that certain overseas organizations will not accept donations from companies which are not environmentally friendly.
But charity cause in China has only just begun, and “we should not set up a rigorous moral standard for the corporations at this time yet.”
But in the awarding evening, The China Charity Awards had excluded the tobacco companies.
Wang Zhenyao explained that many organizations wrote to the Civil Affairs Bureau to protest that the tobacco companies were on the list. The bureau had to remove the tobacco companies from the list.
Meanwhile, International Tobacco Control Conference was held in South Africa from 17th to 22th of Nov.in Durban. During the conference, China was given the “ashtray award.”
The official reason given for the award to China was that China “would rather have pretty cigarette packs than healthy citizens.”
