back to article Chinese officials obliged to smoke 4.6m snouts

The Chinese county of Gong'an has launched a novel way of injecting funds into local coffers: it is ordering officials and teachers to smoke only the homegrown Hubei brand of cigarettes. Those who fail to inhale and help work their way through the 230,000 packets of Hubei gaspers produced annually - and instead light up brands …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    I wonder...

    ... if the health risks from smoking are anywhere as great as the health risks from disobeying the local party officials?

    Anon because I like getting a takeaway.

  2. John Macintyre

    Clarification needed

    The wonderful Beeb stated "Those who did not smoke enough .... faced being fined or even fired. "

    Are they forcing people to smoke or forcing people to simply switch their brand of cig? Slight difference if they force non-smokers to smoke just to raise taxes...

  3. Steve Spiller
    Flame

    So nothing to do with swine fever?

    My first thought when I saw the headline was "Umm, novel way of dealing with Swine Flu but doesn't a flu virus infect the whole body not just the nose?"

    This was closely followed by "But pigs have snot running from their noses practically 24/7 so how can you tell if it's got the flu?!"

    Guess I need to spend more time inside, or watching some more Porridge repeats...

  4. Chris Miller

    Thought this was a swine-flu article for a minute

    <Homer> mmmmm, smoked snouts </Homer>

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    chinese

    Well at least they are up front and honest about it. None of the pretend politics crap we have to put up with in the west.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Come on smokers

    Eff off to China - they want you!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    U-turn

    The beeb is now reporting a U-turn

    "But the government has now backtracked from the policy, after a report in a local newspaper generated criticism."

  8. Hardcastle
    Coat

    Snout smokage...

    <snark> OK, how do you keep those snouts lit? </snark>

    It reminds me when a hippie asked Jed Clampett how they kept crawdads lit...

    Mine's the one with the non-Commie pack of smokes in the inside pocket...

  9. Liam Johnson

    re U-Turn

    oh, not so different after all...

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    sheesh

    At least they did a U-Turn on it. Because really that was a totally daft move even for the Chinese government. A bunch who have specialized in rules and regulations that defy all logic for many many years now.

  11. C. P. Cosgrove

    Chris Cosgrove

    I think a factor of at least 1000 has fallen off this story - according to a very quick calculation, 230,000 packets of 20 comes to only about 60 cases, or rougly one pallet.

    I cannot see one pallet of cigarettes making a significant difference to any tax regime !

    Chris Cosgrove

  12. Cortland Richmond

    Not Pigfluenza?

    Hasn't Swine Flu taught everyone that smoked snouts risk trickynoses?

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like