Beijing - With a nod to history, Chinese politicians have drawn up a list of "four pests" to be eradicated before the 2008 Olympic Games - smoking, spitting, queue-jumping and cursing.
Communist China's founder Mao Zedong was the author of the original "four pests" list in the 1950s, but a new version has been proposed at the current session of the national parliament here.
Backed by the organising committee of next year's Olympics, leaders of the city government and the ruling Communist Party, it takes aim at "uncivilised behaviour" that damages Beijing's image, according to Zi Huayun, a member of the parliamentary advisory body.
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"Although those new 'four pests' seem to be tiny things, they are stubborn diseases that stain the image of the capital city," Zi told reporters.
The original four pests were rats, flies, mosquitoes and sparrows. Their extermination had unforeseen consequences, however. In the absence of sparrows, locusts swarmed over the countryside, consuming crops and causing mass starvation.
The new campaign to improve the manners of Beijing's 15 million residents is well under way and will peak peak in August, one year ahead of the start of the Games, according to officials.
Already the city government has launched official "queuing" promotion days, and is busy running a "smile" campaign to lift the expressions of glum residents.
Etiquette courses are being offered to teach shopkeepers and other service industry workers such as taxi drivers how to be more polite and welcoming to foreigners.
Smoking may be harder to stamp out. China has one of the highest smoking rates in the world, and hotels and restaurants show high tolerance to tobacco use.
Plans to stage a tobacco-free Olympics are under discussion between Beijing Olympic officials and the city government.
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