Beijing adds anti-smoking personnel

Breitbart.com reported that the city of Beijing is getting ready to add 40,000 smoking inspectors to its current complement of 60,000, to boost enforcement of a 12-year-old public smoking ban.

By any standard, 100,000 is a lot of official scolds running around just one city telling people they can't smoke in public.

These officials can't issue fines, but they can report establishments that are allowing smoking, and the potential fines that can be levied on businesses are around $700 -- a fairly large amount for the average Chinese person, I would assume.

Beijing's ban does not apply to restaurants, bars, or massage parlors, so apparently the Communist Chinese are offering a bit more freedom of choice for their citizens than the Elkhart City Council is willing to permit here. Nonetheless, it's good to know our leaders are taking a cue from such perennial defenders of personal freedom as the People's Republic of China.