Were Chinese really ordered to smoke more to boost economy?

Factual Questions
1

I just returned to the US after living in Shanghai for six months. Naturally, a lot of people have been asking me questions. But the strangest question I’m asked is if the Chinese government really is forcing citizens to meet a smoking quota to stimulate the economy.

This seems to fly in the face of the smoking bans that should go into effect in Shanghai for the 2010 Expo [cite].

I found a Telegraph article [link] that addresses this. But to me, it seems like the Hubei provincial government is trying to force existing smokers to smoke their particular local brand of cigarette instead of other provincial / foreign cigarettes in order to boost their local economy.

As strange is this sounds by Western standards, I think this is a far cry from “forcing people to meet smoking quotas”. Is this just misleading journalism, or am I missing some evidence that supports the claim that Chinese citizens are being forced to smoke when they otherwise wouldn’t?

2

No way. At least not as a national government sponsored program. Maybe you would find it down in the provincial or local level.

Even in China, it is recognized that smoking is a health hazard. While the smoking levels in the big eastern seaboard cities may seem really high by western standards, the rates have been dropping. Going more to the East, smoking rates are significantly higher.

3

China Guy, as far as I am aware you are right about the local level. The BBC covered the story and commented that it was purely a local thing in a certain province. They commented that they were pushing the local brand so as to help the local economy and that local government chiefs are often a trifle over-zealous in their attempts to impress those further up the food chain.