It is really quite baffling to me. South Korea, a country of 50 million people, has captured the minds of an entire generation of global youth and vaulted from a relative unknown outside its region to one of the biggest cultural juggernauts on the planet - and the reaction of the CCP is to throttle China's ability to compete on soft power in similar spaces?

It is hard to view this as anything but deeply short-sighted reactionary behavior emanating from old, out-of-touch leaders who do not understand modern youth culture, which sets a pretty ominous precedent in terms of where things may go from here.