As of June 1, Beijing residents can no longer smoke in restaurants or bars, office buildings, or on public transportation, under legislation passed last November. Violators of the ordinance will be fined 200 yuan ($32), and businesses that allow smoking will be slapped with fines of up to 10,000 yuan ($1,600). After three violations, public smokers will be named-and-shamed on a government website, Reuters reports.
Smoking in public spaces is already supposed to be prohibited nationwide under 2011 health ministry guidelines, but China's 300 million smokers routinely ignore the rules, or shrug off the 10 yuan ($1.60) fine. Beijing, with some of the worst air pollution in the world, appears to be serious this time, rolling out a public anti-smoking campaign and deploying thousands of inspectors. No word on whether China plans to increase the price of a pack of cigarettes from as low as 80 cents.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Today's political cartoons - January 12, 2025Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - snowed in, dangerous conditions, and more
-
5 fact-checked cartoons about Meta firing its fact checkersCartoons Artists take on playing chicken, information superhighway, and more
-
NCHIs: the controversy over non-crime hate incidentsThe Explainer Is the policing of non-crime hate incidents an Orwellian outrage or an essential tool of modern law enforcement?
-
US port strike averted with tentative labor dealSpeed Read The strike could have shut down major ports from Texas to Maine
-
Biden expected to block Japanese bid for US SteelSpeed Read The president is blocking the $14 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan's Nippon Steel, citing national security concerns
-
Why is China targeting Nvidia? (And why is the AI giant so important?)Today's Big Question A new front in the 'chip war' with the US
-
Judges block $25B Kroger-Albertsons mergerSpeed Read The proposed merger between the supermarket giants was stalled when judges overseeing two separate cases blocked the deal
-
Rupert Murdoch loses 'Succession' court battleSpeed Read Murdoch wanted to give full control of his empire to son Lachlan, ensuring Fox News' right-wing editorial slant
-
Bitcoin surges above $100k in post-election rallySpeed Read Investors are betting that the incoming Trump administration will embrace crypto
-
Enron mystery: 'sick joke' or serious revival?Speed Read 23 years after its bankruptcy filing, the Texas energy firm has announced its resurrection
-
Russia's currency crisis as sanctions biteThe Explainer Rouble plunges to lowest rate against dollar since invasion of Ukraine as economic toll finally begins to be felt
