Despite Beijing’s torrential downpours recently, and more storms forecast ahead, local drivers may be headed for a bit of a dry spell. Fergus Naughton reports on what happens when Beijing police decide to start testing blood-alcohol levels for all and sundry behind the wheel: 

When the authorities promised to crack down on any form of doping during the Olympics, they obviously meant it.  Alcohol is not necessarily considered a performance-enhancing drug -- though many a Celt or Anglo-Saxon would disagree -- but Beijing’s police force has been submitting drivers to breathalyzer tests for the past two months or so. From the main access points on Beijing’s many ring-roads, to central Changan Avenue which runs east-west past Tiananmen Square, drivers are being randomly flagged down or checked at traffic lights.

     What’s surprising about all this is that the concept of being checked for drink-driving is so new that many local drivers have never even seen, or heard, of a breathalyser, let alone known how to use one.

     The other night a traffic cop knocked on the driver’s window of a car at the intersection of Changan Avenue and Fuyoujie, by the central governmental headquarters of Zhongnanhai. The lady behind the wheel of the grey and purple Suzuki Alto laughed in embarrassment as the cop had to explain what the breathalyser contraption was, how to use it, and why.  Even the cop laughed as he retrieved the little black gizmo -- in apparent agreement about how ridiculous the situation was.

   As we observed the scene, my cab driver laughed as well. “They used to annoy us all the time,” he joked.  “Now they’re after everyone.” On the far side of the road were a number of police vehicles including two cruisers, a powerful Japanese-made motorcycle and a tow truck. Behind this gaggle of law enforcers was evidence that some people had already been nabbed that night. An empty grey Hyundai Elantra and a black Audi A6 were parked forlornly behind the police tow truck while an attractive young girl in a roaring red Mazda 6 ruffled through her papers. A white-gloved traffic cop, wearing a somewhat weary expression, waited in the light evening drizzle.

According to my cab driver, who’s been working Beijing’s Xicheng district for the past three years, in the past police only breathalysed drivers if there had been a serious accident. But things have obviously changed recently.

   China has laws by the library-full,  but they’re often applied in such an utterly arbitrary way that people tend to simply ignore them. Now it looks like Beijing is finally seeing fit to implement some of its many traffic laws, at least in the run-up to the Games. Article 91 of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Road Traffic Safety states that if caught for drink-driving, the driver's license will be suspended for between one and three months and the driver fined 200 to 500 yuan.

  If the driver is completely plastered (though it may be hard to tell from local driving habits alone whether the person at the wheel is drunk or sober) “he shall be restrained by the traffic control department of the public security organ until he is awake from drunkenness, and he shall be placed in detention for not more than 15 days.” This is in addition to a three- to five-month license suspension and a 500 to 2,000 yuan fine.

For those unfortunate enough to be involved in more than just a fender bender while inebriated, there is a high probability that -- even for the rich and famous – stiff penalties await.

Or at least that’s what a national sporting hero discovered in a drink-driving case that would have been the stuff of tabloid dreams in the West. Year before last, state media reported that China’s Olympic table tennis champion Kong Linghui smashed his Porsche Boxster into a Beijing taxi in the wee hours of a Saturday morning.

The disgraced ping pong champ was accompanied by two unnamed ladies – obviously of svelte build as there is barely enough room to put your golf clubs into a Boxster. Kong was slapped with a 1,800 yuan fine and had his driver’s license taken off him for the maximum six months, according to the report.

Cynicism aside, perhaps this anti drink-driving push really will take a hold. Maybe local drivers will learn to “just say no” to that extra glass of Erguotou -- serious local hooch weighing in at a minimum 52 proof; the average bottle costs just 4 yuan. After years of chatting with well-seasoned Beijing cabbies and indulging in the mandatory “how much booze can you drink?” conversation, I noticed that liquor is now off the list of conversation topics -- and perhaps even the afternoon tipple has seen its day.

“It’s not worth it…Giving them 200 [yuan] and getting in trouble with the [taxi] company,” a cabbie told me the other day. “Besides, my wife would kill me,” he added with a grimace as he flicked his cigarette butt into the path of the oncoming traffic.