Hopes grow in South Korea for China to lift its ban on Korean products

Hopes are rising in South Korea that the de facto restrictions on Korean entertainment in China, known as the "ban on Korean entertainment," will be eased.
The APEC summit was held in Seoul, and Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Korea for the first time in 11 years to attend. A China-Korea summit was also held, and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung held a cultural exchange meeting with Xi.
At the dinner, Park Jin Young (JY), a Korean singer and co-chair of the Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange, spoke about expanding exchanges.
President Park met with President Xi and expressed his thoughts on the possibility of Korean artists performing in China.
Some say that the government has responded positively to the proposal for a K-POP concert. South Korea's public broadcaster KBS said, "If the restrictions (on the ban on Korean culture) are fully relaxed, there will be economic ripple effects through concerts and music streams.
While expectations are rising, the South Korean newspaper Hankyoreh said, "Considering that the ban on Korean culture has evolved into a restrictive measure for Chinese society as a whole, lifting the ban on Korean culture will not be easy."
China has been protesting against the 2016 agreement between South Korea and the United States to deploy the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) ground-based missile defense system in South Korea.
In the same year, the government issued a "Korean Wave Ban Order" to restrict the distribution of Korean content. It banned the screening of Korean films in Chinese cinemas and on streaming video services, and also banned the import of Korean pop culture and Korean Wave studios.
The order prohibits the activities of the South Korean government in China. It is considered a de facto retaliatory measure by China for its opposition to the deployment of THAAD, but the Chinese government has not officially acknowledged the existence of the order.
The background to the ban on Korean content in China is thought to be the deterioration of Sino-Korean relations, and the fact that the Xi Jinping administration is placing importance on China's own culture, and the rise of Korean stars,
Some believe that the government is concerned about the excessive enthusiasm of Chinese fans who spend large amounts of money to support their favorite idols, and is concerned about the negative impact this could have on China.
Large-scale K-pop concerts are not permitted in China. In September of this year, the K-pop group Kep1er postponed a concert scheduled for Fuzhou, China, one month before the event.
The view that the ban on Korean products is still in place is widespread. Amid this situation, a China-Korea summit was held on the 1st, and the two leaders agreed on the need to expand cultural cooperation. They also met with Xi at a dinner.
Singer Park Jin-young, co-chair of the Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange, posted about the meeting on her social media account on the 2nd. "I was very happy to meet and talk with President Xi Jinping.
I was really happy to be able to do this. I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your attentive listening and kind words." He added, "I hope that the people of our two countries can become closer through popular culture.
I hope for further dialogue." Park also posted a similar message in Chinese. Prior to this, Kim Yong-bae, a lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, posted on social media, "President Lee Jae-myung
During the conversation between President Xi Jinping and Park Jin Young, chairman of the Committee on Popular Culture Exchange, President Xi Jinping responded to a proposal to hold a large-scale concert in Beijing and called Foreign Minister Wang Yi to give instructions.
"I hope that this will not only be the lifting of the ban on Korean culture, but also the moment when the door to full-scale K-culture advancement will be opened," Kim said in a post. Kim is the secretary of the South Korean National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee.
While expectations are rising for the lifting of the ban on Korean culture that has been in place for over eight years, the Committee for Popular Culture Exchange stated, "We understand that the conversation between President Xi Jinping and Park Jin Young was a greeting at an official diplomatic event."
He then drew a line, saying, "We must be careful about excessive interpretations of this matter, and we believe that it is hasty." The South Korean newspaper Hankyoreh reported, "Experts say that lifting the ban on Korean affairs is extremely difficult.
"The government sees this as a threat," the paper said, quoting Ji Man-soo, an advanced research fellow at the Korea Institute of Finance and a China expert. Ji said in an interview that the ban on Korea began as a reaction to the deployment of THAAD in 2016.
However, he pointed out that "around 2021, the Chinese authorities, alarmed by the development of Chinese fandom culture, changed its character." He added, "The ban on Korean content has a negative impact on young people and is designed to encourage them to form organizations outside the Chinese Communist Party."
"The policy has changed to restricting culture and the performing arts to prevent the risk of this happening," he said, adding, "It's unlikely to change even if there's a summit or an improvement in (China-South Korea) relations."
According to the newspaper, in 2021, a Chinese program modeled on a Korean idol audition program will launch a fan voting program in collaboration with a dairy beverage company as a sponsor.
When the company launched the ranking, fans bought a large amount of the company's milk and then disposed of it. In response to this, Chinese authorities began to impose restrictions, such as banning the publication of celebrity popularity rankings.
The newspaper reported, "Since then, China has seen almost no large-scale K-pop concerts, let alone large-scale concerts by American or Japanese groups."
KBS also quoted an industry insider as saying, "Only when a concert with 3,000 to 5,000 people is actually held in Korea can the ban on Korean productions be effectively lifted."
I got it.