Heavy fines for smoking in public to be introduced this year

• Source: The Global Times
• [08:53 May 19 2009]
• Comments

(Photo: Xinhua)

By Ji Beibei

Restaurants could be fined up to 10,000 yuan ($1,500) for allowing people to smoke in designated “no smoking” areas under the revised version of the Regulations on No Smoking Areas in Public Places in Beijing, a member of the team drafting the revisions said May 18.

Professor Cui Xiaobo told the Beijing Times that the revisions will also include fines of between 50 and 200 yuan for members of the public caught smoking in selected public places.

The new rules are expected to be passed before the end of the year.

Under the regulations introduced last year, Beijing’s schools, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, banks and office buildings were ordered to put up “No Smoking” signs in their premises. If they fail to do so they could now be fined 10,000 yuan, Cui said.

In a survey conducted by Cui and his fellow consultants, 70 percent of the 6,000 Beijingers polled said they thought the 200-yuan fine was a good idea. Fifty percent said the government should introduce tougher measures.

“I don’t think 200 yuan is enough,” Liang Xiaohan, a supervisor with Beijing’s Meizhou Dongpo chain of restaurants, one of which is completely no smoking, told the Global Times yesterday.

“It’s not easy stopping people smoking because it’s a habit for Chinese to offer each other cigarettes when they meet, but it’s reasonable to charge places such as restaurants that fail to stop people smoking. It works in other countries,” he said.

Opening a no-smoking restaurant had been good for business, Liang said.

“It was slow to take off but has gradually become more popular,” he said.

A Beijing smoker surnamed Yue told the Global Times he was not worried about the fine, as he never smokes in places where it is prohibited.