Law stresses ban on underage booze sales
By Cao Li (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-11-09 09:17

Signs warning people of strict penalties for anyone caught selling alcohol or cigarettes to people under 18 are to be prominently displayed by law.

A new amendment has been added to Shanghai's existing regulations for protecting local minors and will be submitted to the Standing Committee of the local People's Congress for its third review at the end of this month. Voting will then take place for final approval.

"The maximum penalty is currently set at 500 yuan (US$60), but it is subject to further change," said Huang Jue, an official from the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress.

"This new rule warns both shopkeepers and children of the laws about selling alcohol or cigarettes to children."

Law

A Chinese law implemented in 1999 forbids the sale of booze or cigarettes to minors.

Many shops are still ignoring the law.

"The law doesn't include specific punishments for doing so," said Huang.

"So we are trying to make sure it happens. What we are trying to do now is to carry it out in exact measures."

Statistics show that among the 320 million smokers in the country, more than 5 million are high school students or primary school children. Their average age is 14 and a half.

"Every day, about 80,000 children start smoking," said an official from the Shanghai Association of Smoking and Health.

More than 95 per cent of juvenile delinquents apparently started their lives of crime because of smoking.

"When they can't find money for smoking, they try to get it in inappropriate ways," said the official.

There are still difficulties in how to actually enforce the regulations. But challenges exist like how to carry out the regulation.

Random visits to some 15 local shops that sell alcohol or cigarettes discovered that just five of them displayed an obvious sign stating the illegality of selling the products to minors.

Even shops that did display signs were seen still selling to schoolboys.

Shopkeepers claim there are no laws requiring them to demand identity cards from customers and that they find it difficult to tell.

"Some of them say they're buying the products for their parents," said one cigarette shopowner.

Close

Today's Top News     Top China News
Nation likely to be 3rd largest trading power         Nutritional imbalance plagues people         Mine blast kills 33, injures 6 in Henan         Coal mining: Most deadly job in China         Shen and Zhao win Cup of China         Consumer price remains stable in October	Hu pledges strategic partnership with Brazil       Coal mining: Most deadly job in China       Mine blast kills 33, injures 6 in Henan       Consumer price remains stable in October       Work on anti-trust legislation stepped up       Wen: Nation strengthens ties with Luxembourg