In dozens of rural villages in China’s western provinces, one of the first things primary school kids learn is what made their education possible: tobacco.
“On the gates of these schools, you’ll see slogans that say ‘Genius comes from hard work — Tobacco helps you become talented,'” said Xu Guihua, secretary general of the privately funded lobby group Chinese Association on Tobacco Control. The schools are sponsored by local units of China’s government-owned monopoly cigarette maker. “They are pinning their hopes on young people taking up smoking.”
Anti-tobacco groups say efforts to reduce sales in the world’s largest cigarette consumer, such as a ban on smoking in public places introduced in May, have been hampered by light penalties, a lack of education about the dangers of smoking and the fact that the regulator, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, also runs the world’s biggest cigarette maker, China National Tobacco Corp.
This is from an article on Bloomberg.com in which I learned that China has 320 million smokers. Like Princeton’s Anne-Marie Slaughter replied over Twitter, that’s almost the size of the US population!
And regarding the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration owning China National Tobacco Corp., I think I’ve found the perfect counterexample for when I teach about incentive compatibility in the law and economics seminar I teach in the spring…
Coughing Tiger, Sickened Dragon
In dozens of rural villages in China’s western provinces, one of the first things primary school kids learn is what made their education possible: tobacco.
“On the gates of these schools, you’ll see slogans that say ‘Genius comes from hard work — Tobacco helps you become talented,'” said Xu Guihua, secretary general of the privately funded lobby group Chinese Association on Tobacco Control. The schools are sponsored by local units of China’s government-owned monopoly cigarette maker. “They are pinning their hopes on young people taking up smoking.”
Anti-tobacco groups say efforts to reduce sales in the world’s largest cigarette consumer, such as a ban on smoking in public places introduced in May, have been hampered by light penalties, a lack of education about the dangers of smoking and the fact that the regulator, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, also runs the world’s biggest cigarette maker, China National Tobacco Corp.
This is from an article on Bloomberg.com in which I learned that China has 320 million smokers. Like Princeton’s Anne-Marie Slaughter replied over Twitter, that’s almost the size of the US population!
And regarding the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration owning China National Tobacco Corp., I think I’ve found the perfect counterexample for when I teach about incentive compatibility in the law and economics seminar I teach in the spring…