The Beijing News
April 25, 2008

The Beijing News reports on its front page: Anyone found smoking in a no-smoking area will face a 10 yuan fine. Smoking monitors numbering 100,000 strong will enforce the ban starting on May 1.

This announcement addresses the public's questions as to how the ban will be enforced. Given that Beijing is a city famous for its incorrigible smokers who ignore existing smoking laws, these questions are legitimate. But is a People's War the answer? To maintain and manage such a large team seems to pose an even bigger challenge.

The ban was originally designed to be implemented in all public places, but not long after it was released, the government seemed to realize the impracticality of such a wide-ranging ban and modified it to exempt restaurants, bars, internet cafes, and amusement parks, so long as they had separate no-smoking zones. Today's paper quotes Sun Xianli, vice director of the Beijing Patriotic Public Health Campaign Committee, as saying that no-smoking zones are a only temporary arrangement: the ultimate goal is still a total ban.

As for the ten yuan fine, as recently as April 11, there was a Xinhua report which said that smokers who violated the ban would be admonished and educated, while the public venue that doesn't stop them would be assessed a fine. It seems that the people in charge are having a hard time making a decision.

The May 1 smoking ban is by no means Beijing's first such attempt to tackle the lighting-up problem. As early as 1991, the National Health Ministry introduced the Regulations on Hygienic Management in Public Places, which stipulate that smoking is not allowed in certain public places.

The 1991 Tobacco Monopoly Law has a similar article:

The State and society shall intensify the publicity of and education in the fact that smoking is hazardous to health, forbid or restrict smoking on public traffic vehicles and in public places, dissuade teen-agers and youngsters from smoking, and forbid primary school pupils and middle school students from smoking.

In 1995, the National People's Congress passed a regulation which stipulated that in Beijing, smoking would be banned in a wide range of public places. This regulation took effect in 1996; the new ban is an updated version of this regulation.

The National Tobacco Control Office's website describes over 10 smoking related laws that seem to overlap. How have these laws worked? According to a government survey, in 2003, smokers older than 15 years of age accounted for 28% of Beijing's total population, a drop from 34.5% in 1996. An article from the Capital Medical University stated:

In the past 5 years since the regulation was implemented, great achievements have been made by the Beijing people: the city has finally realized its goal of "one percent down every year." Beijing has left its title of "International Tobacco Metropolis" in the 20th century, and is set up to embrace the "New Beijing, New Olympic" with new and healthy lifestyle.

Zhang Baozhen: "A smoking ban will affect social stability"

And apparently the progress doesn't stop there: The Beijing News article cites other figures showing that the rate dropped to 23% in 2007.

It looks as if we can expect smokers to disappear from Beijing in the foreseeable future, if the momentum is kept. But that's not necessarily a good thing for everyone.

At this year's NPC sessions, in response to a representative's proposal to strengthen tobacco control, National Tobacco Monopoly Bureau vice director Sun Baozhen said the absence of tobacco will affect social stability.