BEIJING, June 9 -- China could ban foreign-made cartoons from prime time television once the quantity and quality of domestic cartoons reach a certain level, Chinese language newspaper reports quoted officials at the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television as saying Wednesday.

    The ratio of foreign-made cartoons to domestic ones had already been set to 4:6, said an official at the agency¡¯s cartoon department, who refused to give her name.

    ¡°We really need to encourage domestic-made cartoons,¡± said Fu Tiezhen, head of the China Cartoon Arts Committee, an industry group.

    ¡°From the mid-80s, a lot of cartoons from America (the United States) and Japan were imported into China for free or at very little cost. It¡¯s a kind of dumping,¡± Fu said.

    The popularity of foreign cartoons, widely available both on television and on disk, has long troubled bureaucrats hoping to nurture the domestic animation industry.

    Yet foreign cartoons dubbed into Chinese remain a staple on late afternoon and weekend television.

    Fu said he believed that the cartoon industry would best develop through the ¡°market system,¡± but in the meantime some administrative measures might help.

    ¡°We should take action to protect our national culture,¡± he said.

    Chinese studios have leveraged their low labor costs to gain a growing share of the business of animating cartoons for foreign studios.

    Yet they¡¯ve had little luck building up their own brands. Apart from a handful of traditional tales like ¡°Journey to the West¡± and a few new ones made with government backing, such as ¡°The Big Headed Boy,¡± there are few locally made selections.

(Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)