China Expected To Retaliate Against K-Pop Industry In Response to THAAD Deployment
This will probably be one of a few areas that the Chinese will retaliate against the ROK for the decision to deploy THAAD:
Speculation is rife that China will target K-pop stars in retaliation against Seoul’s decision to install an American-made missile defense system on the Korean peninsula. K-pop stars could be the unlikely first casualties of Seoul’s decision to deploy a U.S.-made missile defense system on the Korean peninsula, despite vocal opposition from China.
Speculation is rife that China will retaliate by limiting South Korean media and stars from its huge entertainment market.
According to two sources cited by the South China Morning Post, China’s national media regulator informed TV stations in Guangdong Province that TV shows featuring South Korean pop stars would not be granted approval to air “in the near future.”
Meanwhile, shares in South Korean entertainment companies took a dive Tuesday as investors bet that the firms would be hit by impending restrictions from China. SM Entertainment Co., known for such K-pop super-groups as Girls’ Generation, closed down 5.3 percent, according to Bloomberg. YG Entertainment Corp., the company known for producing Psy, fell 8 percent. [Hollywood Reporter]
You can read more at the link, but the ROK has been through this before with China retaliating against them with trade restrictions such as during the Great Kimchi War of 2005.
Will Korea be weak enough to kowtow to China?
China give up KPOP? LOL. Fat chance…
@setnaffa, the Chinese may not give up watching K-Pop but the Chinese government can make sure that the K-Pop companies in South Korea do not make any money from it by restricting its broadcasting on TV and sales in stores. This would force people online to possibly get illegal downloads of their favorite shows and music.
Which would, in tern start stretching their internal security forces and reduce support for any external military action. Once the KPOP hits, it’s like crack. The Chinese are hooked on Korean dramas, too… Bread and circuses doesn’t work without bread and circuses…
Well, it’s now official:
http://variety.com/2016/biz/asia/china-confirms-ban-on-korean-content-talent-1201830391/
Or maybe not, according to the last line.
Anyways, China is also on a “Smash American Products” kick lately, especially in destroying iPhones. There is a fair amount of Nationalism going on there, especially over the South China Seas kerfuffle.
Will we have to roll out the F-35 Boondoggle to fight the Chinese? I’m sure Lockheed Martin is going “Please, not now! Not now!”