Cautious talk of possibly easing China's unofficial restrictions on Korean pop culture resurfaced this week following a summit between President Lee Jae Myung and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, but government officials and industry insiders alike cautioned that any tangible change would likely be slow and limited. The two leaders held talks in Beijing on Monday, marking Lee's first official visit to China since taking office in June 2025. In a briefing afterward, National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac said the leaders agreed to gradually expand cultural exchanges, starting with relatively less politically sensitive fields, including sports. However, Wi stressed that China still does not officially acknowledge the existence of the so-called “hallyu ban,” a tacit restriction that has limited the activities of Korean entertainers in China since Korea's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) deployment in 2016. “China maintains that it does not recognize the policy as formally existing,” Wi told reporters about the hallyu ban. “In today's dialogue, there were comments questioning