The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has decided to ban all foreign cartoons during the "golden hours", reported the Beijing News on Sunday.

No foreign cartoons or programs of introducing foreign cartoons can be shown during the period on all domestic cartoon channels and children channels, the regulation says.

Only after 8 p.m. can foreign cartoons appear on TV, it requires.

The regulation has been issued to local TV stations but the administration has not made it public, according to the newspaper.

Cartoon programs co-produced by domestic and foreign producers will have to get approval from SARFT to show during 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. from September 1.

The first foreign cartoon introduced to China was a Japanese cartoon called "Astro Boy" in 1981. Since then, a large quantity of foreign cartoons crammed into China.

In 2000, a regulation by the SARFT required local TV stations get approval from the administration and set quotas for imported cartoons to show on TV. By that time, China's cartoon programs had nearly been monopolized by Japanese cartoons.

In 2004, the SARFT issued another regulation, requesting for at least 60 percent of cartoon programs aired in a quarter to be domestic products. The regulation resulted in a sharp decrease of foreign cartoons on local TV.