Can Global Health Governance Contend with Transnational Corporate Activities? A Case Study on the Chinese Tobacco Industry

Authors

Xing Gao, Macalester CollegeFollow

Document Type

Honors Project - Open Access

Comments

Advisor: Eric Carter

Abstract

In the past two decades, China’s state-owned tobacco enterprise (CNTC) has expanded its operation and influence abroad under the “going global” strategy. These globalization activities directly and indirectly impact the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the first international treaty signed under the WHO auspices. In this project, I explore how certain CNTC expansionary strategies undermine FCTC articles, as well as the ways in which FCTC articles have failed to curb the tobacco industry’s transnational growth. Using international political economy as an overarching framework for the analysis of global health governance, I argue that the FCTC fails to halt the CNTC expansion activities due to global health governance’s disconnect from international political and economic networks. Furthermore, this case study questions the extent to which global health governance can engage with structural and global corporate influence on harmful substance consumption, such as tobacco use, and the potential of global health governance to act as a mediator between alleviating non-communicable diseases and international economic activities.

Recommended Citation

Gao, Xing, "Can Global Health Governance Contend with Transnational Corporate Activities? A Case Study on the Chinese Tobacco Industry" (2017). Geography Honors Projects. 49.
https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/geography_honors/49