China could be about to lift its restrictions on South Korean pop culture after an eight-year effective ban, paving the way for a resumption of K-pop performances, according to South Korean media.
Citing an unnamed Chinese official, the Korea Economic Daily reported that Beijing hoped to strengthen its cooperation with Seoul ahead of this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which will be hosted by South Korea in November.
“Starting next month, we will send a private-level cultural delegation to South Korea as the first step toward expanding cultural exchanges, aiming to fully resume cultural cooperation as early as May,” the senior official reportedly said last week.
The move would likely open the mainland back up South Korean cultural exports in the form of entertainment content. The so-called Hallyu wave includes South Korean movies, TV dramas, games, K-pop concerts and certain consumer goods, which have all been restricted in China since 2017, in retaliation for South Korea’s deployment of a US missile defence shield known as THAAD.
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While Beijing denies overtly banning Hallyu, it does require prior approval from Chinese authorities before being imported to the mainland – and permission is reportedly often denied. An unnamed official at South Korea’s Beijing embassy told the Daily that it had “consistently urged the Chinese government to lift the ban.”
Since the ban was never official, easing it would likely be in the form of more approvals for the likes of K-pop concerts on a case-by-case basis “until a full reopening is achieved,” they said.
Washington’s tense relations with Beijing are understood to be behind China’s thawing stance towards South Korea.
South Korean media has said Beijing appeared to be shifting away from so-called “wolf warrior” diplomacy – characterised by assertive rhetoric toward unfriendly nations – and into “smile diplomacy,” in an effort to gain geopolitical ground in the face of Washington’s erratic stance toward countries traditionally regarded as American allies.
