China ? China is tightening smoking regulations to ban lighting up in any indoor public spaces in seven provincial capitals, the latest sign of rising health awareness in the world’s largest tobacco-consuming nation.

The success of the effort may provide the best indicator yet as to whether broad efforts to restrict tobacco use can overcome stiff resistance from retailers and some local governments, which profit significantly from tobacco taxes.

Smoking is a huge business in China: 2 trillion cigarettes are sold in the country every year. The country accounts for more than one-quarter of the world’s 1.3 billion smokers, with about 60 percent of Chinese men and 3 percent of women indulging in the habit.