China Raises Cigarette Taxes, But Will It Stub Out Smoking?

China raised cigarette taxes on Sunday, from five to 11 percent, in an effort to reduce smoking and less than a month before Beijing's smoking ban goes into effect on June 1, Reuters reported.

Making smoking more expensive has had some impact on reducing tobacco consumption overall in other countries, and may have a similar effect here.

About one-third of all of the world's smokers live in China – there are about as many smokers here than there are residents of the United States – 350 million. We've been pretty skeptical of efforts to reduce smoking in Beijing, especially after a public ban on it just before the 2008 Olympics was a miserable failure.

A primary cause for our doubts is that aside from China being the world's leading producer of tobacco, tobacco sales in the company are controlled by the State Tobacco Monpoly Admistration, which generates significant revenue, both in sales and in taxes, for the government. In 2013, that number was about USD 132 billion, according to Reuters.

We'll see. While our friends at the World Health Organization assure us that this time the ban will take hold, and we hope it does, we'll remain skeptical until the air clears.

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Photo: Deutsche Welle