More cartoon madness

BREITBART.COM - China Bans Cartoons That Blend Animation:

"China has announced a ban on TV shows and movies that blend animated elements with live-action actors, a move aimed at nurturing local animators and apparently curbing the use of foreign cartoons."

This would seem to be a direct assault on the free trade goals of the WTO since the motive seems to be primarily to protect and encourage the domestic animation industry - content screening being already a long established part of the process of licensing foreign media productions for broadcast in the PRC.

The article notes that Chinese animation shops have had considerable success in doing animation for foreign studios but relatively little is produced specifically for the local market. Of course, it does not occur to the government that the thing they need is a way for people with interesting stories to tell to finance, produce and market their product. This is what drives the successful US and Japanese animation shops.