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The Korean film and television industry thrives on its global development mechanism and its innovative capacity for industry professionalism. At present, it has already secured a position as a global cultural hub. With the worldwide dissemination of the Korean Wave, China and South Korea, both situated within the East Asian Cultural Sphere, are deeply influenced by Confucian thought. In film and television art, the ethnic customs, lifestyles, and ethical concepts displayed in Korean productions often bear the profound imprint of traditional Confucian culture. Therefore, Korean films tend to evoke a stronger sense of resonance among Chinese audiences compared with films from other nations. This is attributed to the considerable similarities between its cultural roots and value system and those of Chinese culture (Chen, 2023). Moreover, as early as the initial stage of the Hallyu cultural export strategy, China, with its rapid economic growth and increasing emphasis on the cultural industry, demonstrated tremendous potential and global influence in the film and television sector. With its vast audience base and steadily increasing box office revenue, China has become a major force in the global film and television market. In addition to achieving remarkable success in the domestic market, China's film and television industry has gradually strengthened its capacity for international cooperation and import. Compared with European and American countries, the shared cultural attributes between China and South Korea enable Korean dramas to evoke stronger emotional resonance among Chinese audiences. Industry insiders generally believe that during the peak period from 2014 to 2016, Chinese video platforms easily spent more than several hundred million US dollars annually on purchasing Korean drama copyrights. However, in 2016, South Korea's deployment of the "THAAD system"1) triggered a geopolitical conflict between China and South Korea. Viewing the move as detrimental to its strategic security interests, China responded with an informal cultural control policy, namely the “Korean Wave Ban.”2) This policy resulted in a comprehensive restriction on Korean film and television content in the Chinese market, and Korean film and television projects involving Chinese investment and co-production were directly suspended and indefinitely shelved. The existing industrial cooperation mechanisms between the two countries were severed, forcing the Korean film and television industry to passively withdraw from the Chinese market, while joint venture film and television companies between China and South Korea suffered enormous economic losses. The timing of its removal constitutes a core uncertainty due to the absence of explicit provisions in the “Korean Wave Ban.” As of 2025, although the policy shows signs of easing (such as the partial resumption of cooperative projects), its future trajectory remains uncertain. In this context, summarizing the impact of the restriction policy on the Chinese and Korean film and television industries and the changes in their cooperation models is conducive to exploring and sustaining the development of bilateral industry collaboration. In the future, how to circumvent policy barriers through innovative models of cooperation while maintaining industrial interaction will become the core issue awaiting exploration for the Chinese and Korean film and television industries.