China · South Korea · Hong Kong · Taiwan · U.S. · Fortune Technology
Seeking to save Gen Z from foreign influence, China has quietly banned K-Pop for a full decade
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As mega K-pop group BTS returns to the stage after a hiatus of more than three years, one major market is conspicuously missing from its 12-month world tour: China.
Key facts
- China has never imposed any so-called bans on the Republic of Korea,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in 2022
- China has blocked most South Korean entertainment since 2016 under an unofficial ban that also restricts movies and the country’s popular TV dramas
- The government banned effeminate-looking men from TV in 2021, a look that Chinese pop stars likely picked up from South Korean and Japanese performers
- The Chinese government had never experienced anything like that before,” said Dong-ha Kim, a professor at the Busan University of Foreign Studies
Summary
The omission of one of the group’s biggest fan bases comes as no surprise. China has long used trade restrictions in geopolitical disputes. Rumblings that the ban could be eased, an expectation South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has publicly voiced as he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping seek to improve ties, have thrust it back into the news. China’s use of economic pressure signals the government’s resolve, clarifies what it considers unacceptable and reinforces nationalism at home, said Seung-Youn Oh, a Bryn Mawr College professor who is writing a book on China’s use of informal economic sanctions.