The urban-rural divide hampering China’s efforts to cut smoking

People in an anti-smoking activity in Hebei province before a previous World No Tobacco Day. China is experiencing ‘a lung cancer epidemic on an unprecedented scale’, an epidemiologist says. Photograph: VCG/Getty Images

The tyranny of distance and the yawning social divide in China are seriously hampering attempts to control an “epidemic” of diseases such as lung cancer, despite billions being spent on healthcare, experts have warned.

Health and social outcomes vary greatly between urban and rural areas, between rich and poor, causing such alarm in Beijing that President Xi Jinping has made raising “common prosperity” the watchword of his bid to rule for an unprecedented third term.