I am a long-addicted cigarette smoker myself, but when I first returned to Mainland China in 1999 I was astonished to find the prevalence of smoking there.  Smokers lit up their cigarettes wherever they were: offices, restaurants, railway station halls, enen in enclosed buses.  Last year when I travelled in Mainland again I found the situation had been widely improved.

The photo here is copied from a report "Government Coughers" of the Economist, website edition.  The report said there are an appalling 300-million smokers now in Mainland China, and estimated that by the end of this century there will have been an accumulated 100-million people died of smoking-related diseases, and resultant medical cost in billions.  From the era in which  leaders like Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping were "exemplary" chain-smokers, to nowadays that Ms. Peng Liyuan, the first lady with excellent image, presenting herself as anti-smoking ambassador, as well as many other warning and preventive measures were proclaimed to curb this "legal drug" , why havent the numbers of smokers in Mainland China declined; instead, the revenue generated from tobacco kept growing?  Well, as far as an addicted smoker like me is concerned, I think the most effective way to deter people from smoking is a prohibitive price of cigarette, other than health reason or moral persuasion. 

Not long ago I wanted to buy a pack of cigarette at a stroe in New York as my stock brought from Taiwan was running out.  It shocked me to find the price of a regular brand is sixfold higher than that of the one I bought in Taiwan.  So I quitted smoking until I returned to Taiwan.(Partly because I didnt have so much cash on hand then, and I just couldnt buy it with my credit card.)  See? It works, at least temporarily.  

According to the Economists report, I found the price of cigarette in US is even much, much higher than that in Mainland.  A pack of the cigarette I intended to buy in New York is 35-fold more expensive than the cheapest one sold in rural China.  So why doesnt the government of Mainland impose a higher price on cigarette?  Revenue and tax reasons.  Besides, central government of Mainland has a monopoly on the tobacco business, so she has to "take care of" public interest; and if the price of cigarettes roars, people may turn to less quality-controlled subsitutes of contrabands in black market.

Poor little fool, you smoker!  Oh yeah, I am a fool, too.