When the Korean film “Oh! My Gran” hit screens in China after six years of a ban on Korean cultural contents over the deployment of THAAD batteries in South Korea, it prompted speculation of a lifting of restrictions on Korean content in China. (poster for “Oh! My Gran” from Weibo)
Will China ever lift its ban on Korean content, which has lasted for over seven years? Last November, China opened up visa-free travel to South Korean citizens, and talks between the culture and tourism ministers of both countries have begun talks of content exchange. This indication of reconciliation has resulted in expectations of China’s ban on Hallyu — or the Korean wave — being lifted. Suffering from economic stagnation, China is seeking ways to attract foreign tourists to revitalize its economy. Foreign tourism seems to be one of Beijing’s solutions to combat the impending tariffs of the incoming second Trump administration. Whatever the reason, if South Korea-China relations improve, then the chances of the Hallyu ban being lifted grow as well. China imposed a ban on Korean content in July 2016 in response to the deployment of US Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile defense system batteries in South Korea. Specifically, the ban prohibits content produced by Korean companies and the transmission of advertisements that feature Korean entertainers and actors. The Korean content industry within China took a direct hit when the Hallyu ban went into effect. Television dramas jointly produced by Korean and Chinese companies suddenly had to substitute their Korean actors for Chinese ones, and the majority of Korean dramas did not pass Chinese broadcast reviews. Even today, most Korean singers and performers cannot hold large-scale concerts within China. In the past, the most important market for the Hallyu industry was Japan. However, as we transitioned into the new millennium, the Chinese market grew into the largest Hallyu market. Due to China’s lax copyright laws, profit margins are not high, but the sheer size of the market made for great potential. With local audiences incredibly receptive to Korean content, it was impossible to discuss the Hallyu industry without including China. Rather, there were concerns about the dangers of the industry becoming too reliant on the Chinese market. Why China chose to ban HallyuIn the years leading up to the Hallyu ban, from 2014 to 2016, Chinese capital invested in the Korean culture industry greatly increased. China’s economic growth during this period amplified the country’s entertainment market, which looked to South Korea as its benchmark. Korean firms, in turn, aggressively pursued joint productions with their Chinese counterparts. This is because local regulations made it very difficult for overseas companies to enter the Chinese market unaided and earn a profit. China lured famous Korean drama script writers, PDs (production directors), producers, staff, and actors with favorable conditions in an ambitious effort to transplant their skills into the Chinese culture industry. This phenomenon occurred so rapidly that several observers expressed concerns about the side effects of Chinese money flooding into the Korean culture industry. Despite its active interest in the Korean culture industry, China chose to implement cultural sanctions in the form of banning Hallyu, a decision that reflected various considerations. For starters, the culture industry is exempted from discussions on international trade, so a ban on cultural content has minimal risk of sparking a trade war. The culture industry is not open to World Trade Organization firms or the free trade agreement framework. When South Korea demanded a reduction of the screen quota for US movies, Seoul argued that the culture industry was not subject to economic protectionist policies. This means that the government can be flexible in how open or closed the industry is. From China’s perspective, they had found an industry that allowed them to hit Korean firms in the gut without worrying about international criticism. If Beijing had chosen another industry for such a ban, they would have risked hurting domestic industries. South Korea and China are intricately linked amid the web of international divisions of labor, so a rash sanctions regime could hurt industries on both sides. If South Korea retaliates with its own sanctions, China would take significant damage. In the international trade regime, there are not many industries where a country can inflict sanctions on another without taking damage. The culture industry, however, allows China to take minimal economic risk while cutting deep into a Korean industry that was heavily reliant on exporting content to the Chinese market. It is likely that Beijing considered all these factors before deciding on a Hallyu ban. More fundamentally, there is the analysis that Hallyu was selected, and then abandoned, as an extension of China’s foreign cultural policy. Korean content and its various charms captivated Chinese audiences and was capable of rapidly expanding within the Chinese market. However, it is necessary to acknowledge that the Chinese government made the conscious decision to accept Hallyu and allow Korean companies to produce content for Chinese audiences from the perspective of “cultural security.” In other words, China viewed Korean content as a “vaccine” that could prevent the expansion of Western culture within its borders. The concept of “cultural security” started becoming important within China around 1992, when Beijing’s socialist framework began introducing elements of free-market economics. Amid such reforms and the opening of the country’s economic borders, the Chinese people experienced both economic growth as well as social and cultural changes. In the process, they became increasingly interested in pop culture. Western pop culture centered around the United States rapidly expanded within China. Western culture had the potential to diminish the influence of socialism and traditional ethics, which had propped up Chinese society up until then. It was therefore a thorn in the side of the Chinese government.
