In a last-gasp effort to save the lungs of 300 million smokers — and the people who work, eat and shop around them — China has shattered its greatest political taboo and decided to resolve the crisis with a free democratic vote.
The poll presents a country that is home to a quarter of the world’s smokers with a simple choice of three government-approved hand gestures that can be used by non-smokers to signal their displeasure at the habit.
The government earns about one trillion yuan (£100 billion) a year in taxes and profits generated by the state-owned tobacco companies, but it has come to see smoking as a crisis that will hit harder with every year as the nation ages and the economy matures