China’s First K-Pop Concert in Years Signal Efforts to Mend Ties

Nearly a decade after China imposed an unofficial ban on K-pop performances in the mainland, Beijing appears to be lowering one of the non-trade barriers that kept South Korea’s cultural phenomenon out of the country.

South Korean boy band Epex is now gearing for a concert in China next month, their agent C9 Entertainment said Tuesday, raising expectations that Beijing may ease restrictions on K-pop culture in the mainland.