Smoking deliberations in live webcast
Print Edition
BEIJINGERS were able to watch live online footage of the city’s lawmakers jousting over a draft law on smoking control yesterday morning.
The Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress started to deliberate on the draft at 9am. The proceedings were broadcast on www.qianlong.com, a website operated by the municipal government.
This is the first time that the institution has given citizens a glimpse into its work through a live webcast. The move manifests transparency in legislation and will help promote the regulation, said Wang Qingbin, an associate law professor with China University of Political Science and Law.
Compared with a poorly implemented rule issued by the municipal government in 2008 to ban smoking in parts of indoor public places and on public transport, the highly anticipated draft law significantly expands smoke-free areas.
It bans smoking in all indoor public places, workplaces and on public transport. It also bars smokers from open-air areas of kindergartens, schools, children’s centers and historical sites.
The draft proposes designating smoking areas in outdoor places of universities, stadiums, fitness centers, medical institutions, tourism sites and parks.
It states that health authorities at county, district and city levels are to enforce the ban.
People breaking the law would be fined 50 yuan (US$8) and offenders who refuse to stub out would pay 200 yuan.
The draft, unveiled in April to solicit public opinion, is likely to be deliberated again in September and take effect in 2015.
China is home to some 300 million smokers, with more than one million people dying as a result of tobacco-related illness a year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
It signed the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003, taking effect in 2006.
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