Politics

China Weaponizes Vape Regulations To Corner US Market

(Wikimedia Commons/Public/Ermell)

Chinese products have dominated the U.S. vaping market in recent years, posing major health and national security risks.

China has been heavily flooding the U.S. with illicit vape products in recent years. Up to 85% of e-cigarette devices and pods currently being sold in stores across the nation are illegal, with many of them originating from China.

“Well, [almost] 100% of the criminal [vapes] are manufactured or have some ties to China, whether it is the parts, the manufacturing or developing any of the components, and they’re criminal contraband,” former U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Assistant Director Richard Marianos told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “These products, within the majority that the kids are using, that are being bought [are flavors like] Cap’n Crunch, Skittles, Grape, berry, fruity tutti, mango crisp. You can just go into a vape shop and see which are the ones that are regulated for tobacco harm reduction and ones that are designed to addict children.”

“Would we ever, in this nation, license a crack house? 
Because many of these vape shops, if you just go on, like, vape store criminal activity, just type it into Google, you’ll find hundreds upon hundreds of these shops that are being investigated, or when they’re being inspected, [and] they’re more than just vape stores,” Marianos continued. “They’re narcotics dams … Now we’re licensing these smoke shops and they’re popping up, like flowers in spring, every time you look around.”

Marianos went on to say that the U.S. needs to enact tighter regulations to prevent the flow of illicit vape products coming from countries like China.

“[It is important to] tighten the regulations against the illegal products coming from China and also develop a better enforcement strategy, that you must include your parents, your teachers, your local police departments, your federal and state officials, to go after these vapor stores, these smoke shops, because they are the number one threat in this war on illegal vapes,” he emphasized. “I call these vape [stores] ‘the face of organized crime,’ because there are communities all over the U.S. that are giving them licenses to operate or open up.”

Chinese manufacturers began marketing their products directly to international customers after the government bannedflavored vape sales in 2022, according to Wired. The country’s vaping sector was estimated to be worth $28 billion as of 2023, the Associated Press reported.

Guy Bentley, director of consumer freedom at the Reason Foundation, said during an April 2025 House Oversight Committee hearing that due to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) “regulatory bottlenecks,” illicit vape products have “flooded the market to satisfy demand, with almost 90% of e-cigarettes sold being illegal, mainly consisting of disposable products from China.”

Illicit vaping products often contain chemicals such as formaldehyde, lead and acrolein, all “materials more commonly found in industrial textiles and pesticides,” according to a September 2025 statement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has recently been investigating vape shops located near military bases. Most of the vape shops being probed by the DEA are “owned and operated by foreign nationals believed to be specifically targeting active military personnel,” according to a September 2025 news release.

“Illegal vape products pose hidden risks—especially to young people who often have no idea what these chemicals are that they are inhaling,” DEA Administrator Terrance Cole warned in a September 2025 statement.

The Department of Justice announced in December 2025 that it seized over 2.1 million illicit vaping products from five distributors and six retailers across seven different states alongside the FDA. U.S. Customs and Border Protection similarly said on May 13 that it had confiscated over 18 million units of illegal vapes worth more than $175 million.

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have sounded the alarm about the potential dangers of illegal Chinese vapes being sold in the U.S. over the years.

Republican South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson led a letter alongside other lawmakers in March 2025 calling for the Trump administration to “take action on the influx of unauthorized Chinese-made e-cigarettes and vapes sold in America.”

“The large-scale smuggling of these illicit vaping products – accounting for more than half of all vapes sold in the U.S. – undermines American public health priorities and contributes to a significant increase in youth vaping,” the members of Congress wrote in the letter.

Dr. Marty Makary resigned from his role as FDA commissioner in May after just 13 months of leading the agency, Politico first reported. His exit from the FDA came after reports that President Donald Trump had rebuked Makary for not acting fast enough to approve flavored vaping and nicotine products.