Stroll into any street market in China. In among the watches and handbags you are almost guaranteed to find shoddy knock-offs of Disney characters; perhaps a thick-limbed Woody from Toy Story, or a Rapunzel with lank and detachable hair. That is one of the main reasons the world’s biggest media company has partnered with the government of Shanghai on a new theme park and resort, its first on the Chinese mainland.

Disney is not doing this directly to make money. Yes, China’s third-richest city seems to promise everything it could want: hundreds of millions of potential customers within a three-hour radius, many of them with rising disposable income and more free time to spend it. But Shanghai Disney will be a relatively small enclosure, one-thirtieth the size of Orlando, offering an unproven mix of “authentically Disney and distinctly Chinese” content. Even with the usual attractions, Disney’s existing overseas properties struggle to break even. From Paris (opened in 1992) and Hong Kong (2005), for example, the company made a post-tax return of $2m in the quarter ending in December, on almost $4bn of assets.

More important is the commitment. Disney’s investment of Rmb12.5bn ($1.9bn), spread over the next five years, is equivalent to 1.8 per cent of China’s entire foreign direct investment in 2010. That gesture might just encourage Beijing to relax import restrictions on foreign films (just 20 are allowed in each year), or to allow Disney to sell its products directly, rather than through authorised dealers. Most significant, though, could be the indirect boost to the protection of intellectual property. There’s a good reason the US Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, which lengthened copyrights by 20 years, is known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act. If any foreign advocate can galvanise IP reform in China, it’s this one.