Tobacco Town Thrives As China Struggles To Kick The Habit

Source: International Business Times

Cigarettes for sale at a store in Yuxi, in China’s southwest Yunnan province AFP Visitors mill around a bright red hilltop pagoda in southwestern China, gazing down at a sprawling cigarette factory whose deadly output has put an otherwise unremarkable city on the map. China is home to a third of the world's smokers and tobacco-related diseases are a major cause of death in the country -- a trend likely to worsen as its population rapidly ages. Beijing hopes to dramatically reduce that by the end of the decade, but even the government machine is struggling to achieve that as it clashes with a powerful state tobacco monopoly and local economies reliant on the crop.