China Bans Smoking: A Nation of 300 Million Smokers Ponders How Serious the Government Is

Starting Sunday, May 8, smoking will be banned in China inside and outside public places. Government attempts to mandate public behavior are frequently met with skepticism. The Chinese government, however, has an impressive record of making its regulatory diktats stick.

From the one child policy to curbing automobile ownership, China has often attempted to impose rules that are intended to benefit the public good, even if the public itself is resistant. Opposition carries a high price in China, but cigarettes have become central to the business/government ethos. They are a common form of gift giving and central to the social milieu around deal making as well as the vagaries of daily interaction. The smoking ban in the US has worked relatively well. Whether a nation this large can stamp out the habit will be a massive study in behavior modification. Benjamin Haas reports in the Los Angeles Times:

"Efforts to ban smoking in public places here have been plagued by false starts and failed campaigns. China, with the world's largest population, also has the most smokers — more than 300 million — a deeply entrenched smoking culture and little awareness among the general public about the health risks.

The current ban was mandated by the State Council, China's top administrative body, in response to a World Health Organization treaty Beijing signed in 2006 pledging to enact nationwide tobacco-control legislation within five years. China already has missed the deadline by almost five months.

The law mandates a penalty of 30,000 yuan, or about $4,600, for owners of establishments that do not comply, but it is still unclear who will enforce the ban and what actions will trigger such a steep fine.

On sunny days, Xu Dongguang, a manager of a trendy cafe in downtown Beijing, arranges tables outside for patrons to while away the afternoon, reading, drinking coffee and chain-smoking. But starting Sunday, all bars, restaurants, hospitals and other public places in China are slated to become smoke-free, inside and out.

A few days before the ban was set to go into effect, many places in Beijing had only heard of the restrictions from news reports, and no one had received an official notice. Xu didn't have plans to comply.

"Our whole restaurant is the smoking section," he said. "Maybe we'll try to ask people to go outside, but in the end, the customer is God."

Many Chinese businessmen greet each other with rounds of cigarette giving, and it's a rare business deal that concludes without one party giving the other expensive tobacco.

"When I applied for permits [for the bar], I would always give officials cigarettes as a present," said Lin Tao, a bar owner.

One posh brand of smokes readily available in fashionable Beijing malls is Panda Cigarettes, which cost 700 yuan, or about $107, a pack. Most brands, however, cost about $2 a pack.

In 2008, Zhou Jiugeng, the director of the Nanjing Property Bureau, was sacked after he was seen at a news conference with cigarettes that cost $20 a pack, much more than he could afford on his official salary.

China accounts for a third of all cigarettes smoked worldwide, and about 3,000 people die every day here from smoking-related illness, according the World Health Organization. Cigarette smoke contributes to four of the five leading causes of death in China, WHO says.


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