Abstract: Electronic cigarette (e-cigs), which may cause new form of nicotine addiction as well as deepen harm of traditional tobacco, is becoming a big public health issue across the world. The regulatory regime for e-cigs has not been established in China. The government is facing with how to define and regulate e-cigs. We conducted a literature review on the structure and composition of electronic cigarettes, market development, effect of e-cigs on health, development of international regulations, game between tobacco control and tobacco industry, and prevalence of e-cigs in China. To prevent e-cigs from deepening traditional tobacco harm or starting an epidemic era of new form of tobacco product through legal channel, we put forward policy recommendations on regulation of e-cigs from public health perspective.