DAY ONE of the new smoking prohibition in China and two young men have finished their cigarettes in the toilets of Beijing’s swanky Yansha shopping centre.
The country is home to some 350 million smokers, but the new law is vague and does not provide any punishments for those breaking the rules so the upgraded smoking ban is unlikely to have much effect.
The tobacco industry employs millions and tax revenues from tobacco are a major source of income which means the government is no hurry to have people quit.
In the cash machine lobby it was the same situation as a group of men puffed away. “Ban? What ban? First I’ve heard of it,” said one. When I told his friend he couldn’t smoke there anymore, he looked at me as if I was insane.
Not a great start for the new, improved smoking ban in a country where offering a cigarette is still the first step to establishing a friendship in the countryside and where restaurants, bars and concert halls remain thick with the fug of fag smoke.
It’s like a national pastime.
More than half of all Chinese men smoke, and 2.4 per cent of women, although that figure is rising.
The Chinese are used to coming home from a night out stinking of cigarette fumes, but the new ban is unlikely to provide relief for China’s non-smokers.
As it stands the authorities are reasonably strict about stopping people smoking in hospitals, schools and on buses, although there are plenty of exceptions to this.
Smoking-related diseases kill about 1.2 million Chinese every year and the mortality rate is expected to climb in the decades ahead to 3.5 million by 2030, according to estimates by the World Health Organisation and the Chinese health ministry.
Under the new ban, owners of bars and restaurants must have visible non-smoking signs, warn people of the dangers of smoking and encourage their staff to dissuade people from smoking.
The new rules are meant to “promote public awareness of the harmful effects of smoking”, and for people to “gradually accept the concept of smoking control”, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Outdoor smoking areas should not be located on public pathways and cigarette vending machines should be excluded from public places, according to the ban.
While hailing the prohibition as an important step in the right direction, one of China’s leading tobacco control lobbyists Yang Gonghuan, deputy director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said the move is too hasty and lacks teeth.
“Without a successful mass campaign, tobacco control is doomed to fail,” she told state media. The law lacks enforcement and supervision elements. A survey by her organisation showed that only 25 per cent of Chinese are aware of the harm posed by smoking and passive smoke.
The state-run China National Tobacco Corporation paid €51 billion in taxes last year. It’s not surprising then that Beijing dragged its feet in adopting the ban.