The young want air, the state wants money: The smoking war stirring up China
A young woman who went out with her mother, who is recovering from cancer, was attacked after confronting a couple on their way to a restaurant. The case joins a series of incidents that reveal a deep generational gap, almost non-existent enforcement, and a huge government economic interest.
Amanda Zhang, a Chinese student in her 20s, planned a quiet dinner with her mother, who is recovering from lung cancer surgery. However, on the way to a restaurant in the city of Nanjing, the two encountered clouds of cigarette smoke exhaled by a middle-aged couple. Zhang commented on it to them, and when they refused to stop, she began filming them. In response, the man lunged at her, and his relatives joined the attack.
"If you don't want to breathe smoke, stay at home!", his daughter screamed in a video that reached the New York Times, which reports on a growing social phenomenon across China.
Conflicts of this type have become routine in the country, which consumes about half of the world's cigarettes. While enforcement against smoking in public places is almost non-existent, long-standing tensions are now surfacing. The younger generation in China is increasingly refusing to remain silent in the face of passive smoking, and social networks are amplifying the resonance of the confrontations. Last June, a man from Shanghai was injured in a fight at a restaurant after trying to protect his pregnant wife from smoke.
In April, a woman named Wang from Shenzhen poured juice on a smoker at a bus stop, and in response underwent an invasive police search that caused a major stir online. The data tells a story of generational and gender gaps. While only 10% of those aged 15 to 24 in the country smoke, among adult Chinese men the smoking rate is about 50%, compared to less than 2% among women. According to social activists, smoking is perceived in Chinese culture as a distinct masculine trait, and the police avoid allocating resources to enforce laws against it.
However, the main obstacle comes from the highest levels. According to a New York Times report, China's tobacco monopoly administration is what blocked national anti-smoking legislation. The administration acts as a regulator and simultaneously operates the state-owned cigarette manufacturer. The company's profits and tobacco taxes account for no less than 7% of China's annual revenue — a sum equivalent to the entire government defense budget. This sharp conflict of interest, along with the regime's tightening control, silences anti-smoking campaigns. Citizens who try to demand justice find themselves helpless, as Zhang also discovered, whose social media accounts were silenced and disappeared after she complained about the authorities' inaction.
