Cigarette Usage Rule

An edict obliging government employees in one Chinese province to smoke (collectively) many millions of cigarettes.

In a questionable effort to promote economic prosperity, authorities inGong’an County, China, ordered the region’s civil servants to smoke (between them) 230,000 packets of locally-produced cigarettes each year, Chen Yang reported for The Global Times.

In The Daily Telegraph Peter Foster noted:

The edict, issued by officials in Hubei province in central China, threatens to fine officials who “fail to meet their targets” or are caught smoking rival brands manufactured in neighboring provinces.

He added:

Local authorities in Gong’an County are taking the cigarette quotaseriously and have established a “special taskforce” to enforce it.

According to a local newspaper account, a teacher from a village middle school said officials burst unannounced into the school at around 3pm one afternoon and started sifting through the ashtray and bins in the staff-room.

Three “non-compliant” cigarette butts were discovered by the “cigarette marketing consolidate team” which informed the teacher he had violated the related civil servants “cigarette usage rule.” After some negotiation the school was spared a fine, but subjected to “public criticism” for “undisciplined practices.”

Predictably, this policy drew widespread criticism and, the BBC reported, the edict was recently repealed.