Yang Qing, an official from the Ministry of Health of China, has disclosed at a recent press conference that from January 2011, smoking will be banned entirely from all indoor public places, work places, public transportation tools and other possible outdoor workplaces in the Chinese mainland.

Yang said that the target was made under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control issued by the World Health Organization.

Yang disclosed that MoH has set up a leader team headed by the health minister Chen Zhu to carry out the no-smoking campaign and it has asked smoking to be banned completely from all government office buildings. Yang said employees of MoH who voluntarily quit smoking and have not picked up any cigarette again in a year will be awarded CNY500 each.

It is said that MoH will also launch a special hotline and email address for making complaints against violators of the smoking ban. Besides, before May 31, the World No-Tobacco Day, the Ministry will invite experts to provide guidance and consulting service for its employees on quitting smoking.

In May 2009, several departments including the Ministry of Health and State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine jointly issued a document which asked all military medical institutions and at least 50% of other ordinary medical institutions to ban smoking entirely to prepare for the 2011 ban.