1st Ld-Writethru-China Focus: China mulls ad bans

China's top legislature began Monday reviewing a draft amendment to the Advertisement Law that proposes a ban on baby formula and tobacco advertising.

"Dairy products, drinks and other food advertisements that claim to partly or completely substitute mother's milk shall be banned from mass media or public venues," said the draft.

The draft revision was submitted to the bimonthly legislative session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, which will run from Monday to Friday.

The proposal stipulates that advertisers, clients, agents and publishers that violate the rule could be fined up to 1 million yuan (163,260 U.S. dollars).

Many champion breastfeeding as the best source of nutrition for newborns, as it improves their immune systems and reduces the likelihood of obesity in adulthood.

However, only 28 percent of infants younger than 6 months were exclusively breastfed in China in 2008, well below the global average of about 40 percent, according to figures released by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The government has introduced measures to revive the practice, such as encouraging businesses to offer new mothers dedicated rooms for breastfeeding and pumping.

The State Council aims to raise the exclusive breast feeding rate to 50 percent by 2020, as outlined in its program for the development of women and children.

A tobacco advertising restriction is another notable change to the 21-year-old Advertisement Law.

An earlier revision submitted for a second reading in December prohibited all forms of tobacco ads except for those posted and displayed in tobacco product shops and business-to-business advertising by tobacco producers to tobacco product sellers. It had listed mass media and public venues where tobacco ads would be banned.

In Monday's draft, however, the provision was summarized in one sentence: "Tobacco advertisements are forbidden from transmission via mass media and in public places."

As the world's largest tobacco maker and consumer, there are more than 300 million smokers and another 740 million people exposed to second-hand smoke in China.

According to a report released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention last May, 6.9 percent of junior school students smoked and 48.5 percent of students between 13 and 15 years old had seen a tobacco advertisement the previous month. In a survey conducted among children aged five and six, 85 percent could identify at least one cigarette brand.

A complete ban on tobacco ads has been a hot topic since China signed the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003, which requires signatories to "comprehensively ban all tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship."

However, a full ban has yet to be enacted, in a country where tobacco production is still a major source of income for some farmers. Endi