Beijing, Seoul signal thaw in cultural ties after a decade

Sohee Kim, Bloomberg News on Nov 2, 2025

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China and South Korea signaled a possible renewal in cultural exchanges during a weekend bilateral summit in Gyeongju, fueling investor hopes for an end to Beijing’s decade-long curbs on Korean entertainment.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korea’s Lee Jae Myung agreed to expand cultural cooperation, South Korea’s National Security Adviser Wi Sung-rak said, according to Yonhap News. Wi noted that “legal and procedural constraints” still stand in the way of fully normalizing content exchanges, the report said.

China’s informal ban on Korean entertainment — spanning from K-pop concerts to TV dramas and films — has been in place since Seoul’s 2016 decision to deploy a U.S. missile defense system, which Beijing opposed as a security threat.

A reopening of China’s entertainment market would be a major boost for South Korea’s pop culture exporters, including Hybe Co., SM Entertainment Co. and CJ ENM Co. Park Jinyoung, also known as JYP, founder of JYP Entertainment Corp., attended the summit dinner in Gyeongju as the head of the cultural commission and posted a photo with Xi and Lee on Instagram.

Shares of JYP Entertainment rose as much as 29% at the open. Shares of SM Entertainment, which recently partnered with Tencent Music Entertainment Group, shares rose as much as 9%.

“Strong demand for K-pop artist events in China is already evident through the surge in K-pop pop-up stores,” said Lee Hwa-jeong, analyst at NH Investment & Securities. Among Korea’s four major entertainment companies, the number of K-pop pop-up stores in China has jumped from just five in 2024 to more than 50 as of the end of October 2025. Popular acts such as Blackpink and Seventeen have drawn particularly strong turnout, she said.

“Large-scale purchases by Chinese resellers have also been observed at pop-up events held in Korea. Given these trends, we see a high likelihood that major K-pop concerts will resume in China in 2026.”

Speculation over a softening of Beijing’s stance intensified after lawmaker Kim Young-bae said Xi reacted positively to a proposal for a K-pop concert in Beijing. Kim, who shared photos from the summit dinner on Saturday, wrote on social media that Xi even asked Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to follow up on the idea.

Still, Seoul’s presidential commission on cultural exchange urged caution Sunday, saying the remarks were “courtesy comments exchanged at a diplomatic event,” according to Yonhap. The panel said it would be “premature” to interpret them as a policy change.

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(With assistance from Youkyung Lee and Vlad Savov.)