Ya Wen has been smoking up to a pack a day since the accident last year when she was hit by a speeding van.
Her parents say that her personality has changed since leaving hospital, where she recovered from five days in a coma and severe injuries.
Addicted: Three-year-old Ya Wen smokes a cigarette. She took up the vice after being hit by a van in Huizhou, China
'She likes drinking,' she said. 'Three glasses of beer is no problem to her.'
Her mother, who collects rubbish to sell in Huizhou, China, said she found her daughter hiding in a toilet and smoking her father's cigarettes.
At first she just thieved those, but now gets them on credit from a local shop.
The store owner said Ya Wen often came over and took one or two packs away.
'We thought she was buying for her father,' he said.
Mrs Gao, who lives in a shelter, said her daughter has now been addicted to smoking for a year and has also changed her preference in clothes.
'She only likes boy's clothes. If we don't buy them for her, she cries in protest.'
* A two-year-old who threw tantrums if he did not have 40 cigarettes a day has cut down to just 15.
Ardi Rizal, who weighs 4st, has been smoking since his father first gave him a cigarette when he was 18 months old.
Officials in Musi Banyuasin, Indonesia, have offered to buy the family a car if he quits.
He has cut down through 'therapy focused on playing'.
Ardi Rizal had his first cigarette at the age of 18 months. At one point the toddler, now four, was addicted to 40 cigarettes a day but has now cut down to 15
