China has risen to be become the top economic force in the world. However recently China took up the spotlight under rather strange circumstances. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (most commonly referred to as SARFT) issued a directive that bans the screening of any film or television program that includes an actor previously arrested for drug possession or use, prostitution, and gambling.

According to SARFT, this directive has as an objective to uphold a certain level of morality in the industry: “Their actions not only broke the law, but also destroyed morality in the society. As public figures, they damaged the image of the whole industry and caused very negative social impact, especially to the young children.” This could have terrible repercussions for many actors—a prime example is Jackie Chan’s son Jaycee Chan who was recently arrested for the possession of marijuana with fellow actor Kai Ko.

This ban will not only affect actors, but entire crews who have worked on these projects. It’s not that actors should be exempt from the law, but perhaps this has been an overly extreme measure. As of right now it is unknown whether the ban will only apply to national films or also include foreign releases in China.