MUMBAI: Tom and Jerry might bid adieu to China's prime time television shows soon! As the country's cartoon industry aspires to get self-sufficient, a ban on foreign-made cartoons is on the cards.

Chinese media reports have quoted state administration officials as saying that, China could ban foreign-made cartoons from its television's prime time once the quantity and quality of domestic cartoons reach a certain level.

"We really need to encourage domestic-made cartoons. 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," China Cartoon Arts Committee head Fu Tiezhen has been quoted in media reports as saying. According to a government official, presently the ratio of foreign-made cartoons to domestic ones is restricted at 4:6.

Foreign cartoons are widely available in china both on TV and on disk. This phenomenon has been a cause of worry to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television officials who have been putting their best efforts to nurture the domestic animation industry in the country.

Chinese studios are yet to come up with a successful brand of their own. part 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.