One of the biggest negative effects of China's obsession with economic development during the past few decades has been a skyrocketing smoking rate, which could soon kill one in three Chinese men now age 29 or younger.

The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 3 that rising prosperity in China has been accompanied by both increased tobacco production and high smoking-related mortality rates. "Tobacco is a pillar of the economy," said Liu Ruisheng of the government-owned China National Tobacco Corp., the world's largest cigarette maker. But more than a million Chinese die each year from smoking-related diseases. 

More Chinese are smoking -- the nation has 350 million smokers -- and more are starting to smoke at a younger age, sparking fears of a coming wave of illness. "The costs to society are enormous," said Henk Bekedam, director of the Beijing office of the World Health Organization.

Smoking-related health costs and lost productivity are forcing Chinese policymakers to look more closely at the issue, with the influential National Development and Reform Commission studying the pros and cons of smoking. Since most Chinese pay for their own health care, however, the impact on the government is not as great as it might otherwise be.

Yang Gonghuan, deputy director of China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention, called smoking "our biggest public-health problem.

"It should be our first priority. But many in the government and the public don't think so ... Some officials think tobacco control is good. Many are still opposed."

Cigarette companies in China contribute $30 billion in taxes to the government. "The government still puts more emphasis on the financial contributions and the development impact," of the tobacco industry, said Zhao Xiao, of the University of Science and Technology Beijing. "The influence of public-health advocates is very weak."

Cigarettes are cheap, there are few controls on advertising, and smoking is deeply ingrained in Chinese culture. About 36 percent of Chinese adults smoke, mostly men. Experts estimate that smoking-related illness and other consequences cost China $5 billion annually

China has signed onto the WHO's international tobacco-control treaty, but has taken only modest steps to enforce the provisions. Stop-smoking advocates hope that as other sectors of China's economy grow, the tobacco segment will lose influence and tobacco-control will become more acceptable to the government.