china bans new tobacco factories the world s biggest tobacco consumer  china  has said it will not allow any new tobacco factories to be built.  china already has more than enough cigarette-making capacity  according to a spokesman for the tobacco industry regulator quoted in china daily. the ban threatens to reignite tensions between the regulator and british american tobacco  which plans to become china s first foreign cigarette maker. a spokeswoman for bat declined to comment on the report.   china won t allow any new tobacco factories to be built  including joint ventures   said xing wangli  a spokesman for the state tobacco administration monopoly quoted in china daily. he also said that the state would retain its monopoly on cigarette distribution. china has 350 million smokers who consumer 1.7 trillion cigarettes a year. smoking is fashionable in china  where it is seen as an essential - and manly - sociable touch for some jobs  such as salesmen. more young  urban woman are taking up smoking too. in july 2004  bat announced it had won approval for to build a $1.5bn (£800m) joint venture factory in china which would make it the first foreign cigarette maker to manufacture there.  the state tobacco monopoly administration said a week later that it had not approved the deal  leading to an embarrassing public row. bat told the bbc at that time that it had not negotiated with the stmc  and secured approval from  the highest levels of government . since then  the row has flared occasionally  most recently at a forum in november. bat consistently declines to comment.  xing s statement comes as especially bad news for british american tobacco   the china daily newspaper said of the latest development. the bat spokeswoman said:  there is nothing for us to add...since our announcement in july last year. the central government of china is the authority that approved our strategic investment.  the decision to ban further tobacco factories does not apply to deals made before 2005  according to the french news agency afp. the joint venture factory was expected to take till 2006 to build. the bat spokeswoman would not comment on its progress. however  if the stma continues to take a tough stance  expansion opportunities could be limited.  china s tobacco market is increasingly valuable as anti-smoking campaigners target public smoking in the west. china daily said the market was currently enjoying steady growth  making more than 210bn yuan ($25.4bn) in pre-tax profits last year  almost double the figure in 2000. the paper made no mention of health concerns. the stma is trying to restructure the domestic tobacco industry  closing some factories  though such moves can be unpopular with local governments.