This Day, That Year

An item from November 1987 in China Daily reported a warning from Wan Li, then the vice-premier, that smoking was dangerous to health and must be forbidden in public places.

It was the first time a top Chinese leader had given a warning against smoking.

China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of tobacco products and has the largest population of smokers — more than 350 million.

Tobacco-related illnesses cause more than 1.3 million deaths every year in the country, and millions more people are exposed to secondhand smoke, according to the National Health Commission.

Beijing’s anti-smoking regulations, the toughest among the cities where controls have been implemented, ban smoking in all indoor public areas and in a number of outdoor spaces.

Violators face fines of up to 200 yuan ($29), 20 times higher than what was levied under a less-stringent regulation adopted in 1996.

The capital’s government provides free services to help people quit smoking, and especially for taxi drivers to further implement the smoking ban. Residents can get service kits at anti-smoking clinics, threemonth drug treatments and six-month follow-up services, all free of charge.

The number of adult smokers in Beijing has fallen by about 200,000 since June 2015, according to official data.

As the world’s largest consumer of tobacco, China has set a target to reduce the smoking rate among people aged 15 and over to 20 percent by 2030 from the 27.7 percent recorded by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2015, according to the Healthy China 2030 blueprint issued by the central government last year.