No Smoking China bans smoking in public, offenders to be fined N6,400

If you're a smoker headed to China, then you should know that it's an offence to smoke in public as the country has introduced new tough regulation which bans smoking in  restaurants, offices and on public transport in capital, Beijing.

Although smoking bans already existed in China, the rules were vague and often flouted by Chinese smokers who had no qualms smoking at will anywhere.

There are over 300 million smokers in China and over a million deaths from smoking-related illnesses in the country every year, hence the introduction of new stricter laws.

Under the new law, which was agreed by lawmakers in November 2014 but only comes into effect from today June 1st, lawbreakers in Beijing will be fined 200 yuan (about N6,400) and businesses that turn a blind eye could be fined up to 10,000 yuan (about N321,000).

In addition, Reuters reports that repeat offenders will be named and shamed on a government website.

The new law also cracks down on tobacco advertising across the city, while thousands of inspectors will enforce the rules.

Welcoming the development, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative to China, Dr Bernhard Schwartlander said:

"When implemented, this new law will permanently bring clean air to all of Beijing's indoor public places - in doing so, protecting Beijing's more than 20 million residents from the deadly effects of exposure to toxic second-hand smoke"