Lin Min

    WHEN a business leader from Jiangxi was fined for violating a smoking ban in Taiwan in 2009, many thought it was just a storm in a teacup and would never happen on the mainland.

    Li Yihuang, chairman of Jiangxi Copper Group, China’s largest copper miner, was fined NT$2,000 (US$68) for smoking in a historic building in Tainan — becoming the first mainland tourist to be fined in Taiwan for smoking.

    The punishment caused a stir on the mainland’s Internet forums. For one reason, the person involved is the boss of a leading company, who usually has all sorts of privileges, not to mention the liberty to light up wherever, whenever he likes. For another reason, the idea of a fine for smoking is alien to many on the mainland, even though some cities have had smoking bans in place for over a decade.

    So, many smokers were unperturbed by the announcement last week that China would prohibit smoking in indoor public places from May 1, betting it would probably be just another fruitless attempt. They may be right because so far there is no reason to believe that this time it is any more serious than any previous attempt to introduce fines.

    In fact, this is not the first time China has attempted to limit the health damage caused by smoking and second-hand smoke. Some cities have restricted smoking in certain public places — nominally. But no single fine has been imposed since such prohibitions were introduced in Shenzhen in 1998, and in Beijing and Jinan in 1995.

    The regulations and rules were simply not enforced. Not a single team of inspectors was established, no police were called in to intervene, and no serious public awareness campaign launched.

    Few other countries have dismissed anti-smoking regulations in such a way. Only seven days after a smoking ban became effective in Saudi Arabian airports on Nov. 1 last year, 16 travelers were fined at Jeddah International Airport. More than 330 people were punished in the five months after a smoking ban in restaurants was introduced in Singapore in 2006. A bar owner in England was ordered by a court to pay a ￡3,000 (US$4,810) fine and ￡7,236 in legal costs after he failed to implement a smoking ban in his business just months after the ban became effective in 2007 — swift action considering the lengthy legal process.

    Some people blame China’s smoking and drinking culture for the large proportion of cigarettes consumed here. In their view, these things are essential to business negotiations. However, the success in cracking down on drink-driving has proved that it is law enforcement — rather than any sort of “culture” — that holds the key to whether a ban is upheld.

    The latest smoking restrictions were included in the new public health guidelines announced by China’s Ministry of Health last week, which raised the fines for smokers and unruly business operators. The guidelines, however, stopped short of requiring health authorities to establish inspection teams and specifying other measures that would implement the rules.

    China has the world’s largest population of smokers, 300 million. More than 1 million people die in the country annually due to tobacco-related illnesses, according to a report by 60 health experts earlier this year.

    The number of people killed as a result of smoking and second-hand smoking far outnumbers the fatalities caused by drink-driving. Health authorities should show the same determination in the crackdown on drunk drivers, lest the latest ban becomes just another toothless, clawless tiger.

    (The author is editor of the Shenzhen Daily News Desk.)