Let Us Hope This Cartoon Protectionism Doesn't Trigger a Great Cartoon Depression

China intends to expand protectionism to its inferior domestic cartoons, banning the foreign variety from Chinese TV in its 5-8 pm primetime.

Like most protectionist measures, it feeds on past protectionist measures that also didn't work:

Broadcasters were told to limit use of foreign cartoons in 2000 at a time when Japanese animation dominated the market.

In 2004, the government stepped up controls, saying Chinese cartoons had to account for at least 60% of the total shown in prime time.

Positive sign: A Chinese newspaper is already criticizing the policy:

"This is a worrying, shortsighted policy and will not solve the fundamental problems in China's cartoon industry," the Southern Metropolis News said. "The viewing masses, whether adults or children, will have no choice but to passively support Chinese products."

The Chicom have even

set up 15 animation centers to nurture the industry, invoking communist guerrilla vocabulary by dubbing them "production bases."

But intervention against the will of the people leads not to success for the interventionist policy, but merely to more intervention; there is no sustainable third way between cartoon autarky and cartoon anarchy.

Globalism irony: Many Chinese animators have jobs making those very Western cartoons now restricted on Chinese TV.