Yesterday, China's State Council submitted a draft proposal for a nationwide ban on smoking in all indoor public spaces, and some outdoor ones as well.
The government is currently canvassing public opinion on the Ordinance on Restricting Smoking in Public Spaces, which, if implemented, could see a nationwide ban enforced across the world's largest cigarette manufacturing and consuming nation.
The ordinance prohibits smoking in restaurants, bars, offices, KTV joints, internet cafes and shopping malls. Smoking will also be disallowed in public parks, squares, pedestrianized streets, and railway stations where specific smokers' areas have not been established.
Schools, hospitals, and public transportation will also be subject to the ban.
With a population of over 300 million smokers, enforcing the new rules would pose a monumental challenge to various levels of government throughout the country.
If the ordinance is adopted, however, visitors to any of the aforementioned venues who find themselves subject to second-hand smoke will be empowered to appeal to relevant local authorities.
The ambitious scope of the proposal doesn't just apply to our living environment, either: it also extends to the realm of fiction.
Depictions of smoke curls dancing around the eyes of sullen seductresses and smoldering ciggies hanging from the untrembling lips of troubled anti-heroes may well be consigned to the ashtray of history as on-screen smoking feels the pinch as well.
If adopted, the ordinance would represent the nearest the government has come yet to honoring its commitment to create a tobacco-free indoor environment under the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which China ratified in 2005 but failed to implement by the 2011 deadline.
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