For health advocates and those of us who find smoke from burning tobacco repulsive, it is a devil that has to be stopped at any price.
Tobacco is believed the No 2 killer of human lives, second only to hyper-tension.
Five million people die of tobacco-related illness around the world every single year, the World Health Organization estimates. At home, our Health Ministry attributes 1 million deaths each year to tobacco.
For industry apologists and some local governments who rely on tobacco for revenues, however, it is something neither individual citizens, nor the country can afford to lose.
Industry insiders love and promote some tobacco addicts' theory that smoking helps reduce tension and anxiety.
"Moderate smoking is beneficial for people's physiological and psychological well-being," says a book in a "popular science" series sponsored by China Tobacco. "Studies have shown that smoking may improve memory."
The economic argument sounds even more compelling nearly 5 million rural households and 4 million retailers in China make a living based on tobacco. And tobacco accounts for 10 per cent of the government's overall tax revenues.
Do you want to take the moral risk of ruining the livelihoods of millions when you deal with a public health problem?
Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Sha Zukang struck that sensitive chord on Tuesday when he addressed signatories of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Briefing his audience on recent Chinese moves to control tobacco, Sha told treaty signatories that China would faithfully fulfil its control obligations, taking into account its national conditions.
His words were a reminder of the sense of helplessness in trying to get out of a seemingly unbreakable cycle.
Tobacco has indeed been an efficient GDP (gross domestic product) booster and job creator. In places like Yunnan Province, tobacco is simply the foremost economic pillar. Local economic indices are sure to plummet without such a prolific cash cow.
