China has forbidden broadcasters from scheduling television dramas about crime or espionage for the next three months.
Officials want those programmes replaced with a schedule designed to praise the Chinese Communist Party which is preparing to celebrate its 90th anniversary.
A senior staff member of the state television regulator called it a "propaganda period", the BBC reports.
The government wants China's one billion television viewers to tune in to a wholesome diet of patriotic propaganda that will glorify the party ahead of the anniversary on 1 July.
