It has been five months since the authorities banned smoking in public in Beijing, but sadly the move has not yielded results any better than earlier plans to outlaw spitting and rudeness.
But you know what they say - it's the thought that counts.
The crusade for clean living began in January when smokers were ordered to stop tossing cigarette butts out of windows or face a US$6 fine under new fire regulations.
Then in May the city decreed that smokers would be forbidden from lighting up in schools, hospitals, railway stations; indeed, any public place, or face a fine of $1.20.
Authorities ordered 80,000 armband-clad busy-bodies to scour the streets to flesh out offenders.
Municipal leaders later announced with straight faces that 'no report has been received of violations of the regulation'. We laughed for weeks over that one.