Some governments fear that escalating health costs will outpace such profits. But they must do battle with U.S. cigarette manufacturers, who have shifted their sights abroad to make up for lost ground back home. American companies have trained a particularly keen eye on Russia and Eastern Europe, snapping up tobacco-production plants in Hungary and the Czech Republic and hungrily coveting the six state factories in Poland. While the Opium War lasted only three years in the 19th century, the Smoking War is likely to continue for decades. Seductive profits, entrenched habits and widespread illiteracy, which militates against public education, all pose obstacles.
Human frailty is also no small hurdle.
China's advertising ban can hardly compete with old photographs of Paramount Leader Deng Xiaoping blithely puffing away. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at least practices what he preaches. In February the Israeli parliament passed legislation that would have banned smoking in the workplace. But Rabin, who chain-smokes his way through weekly Cabinet meetings, did not want to be a hypocrite. He refused to sign it.