Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Longjumping_Plum_964 t1_iyi6ffm wrote

If Xi really wants to protect the Chinese people from health risk, he would put as much energy and resources into stop smoking as he does to stop the spread of covid.

3

SkullysBones t1_iyj7sig wrote

The tobacco companies are all majority owned by the state. They sell something like a trillion cigs internally in China every year. Probably a difficult source of revenue to let go of.

2

shape_shifty t1_iyjj75r wrote

It's money coming from its own population so for a very economically centralized economy such as China it isn't a question of profits. It's more about social acceptance and the cost price of enforcing control if cigarettes were banned. In a very narrow vision of profit maximising, it would be banned because it would reduce the cost of healthcare for a rapidly aging population.

2