Does China hate BTS? The latest news about the deleted images

Bangtan Boys, the Korean pop band better known as BTS, still commands one of the largest global fanbases in music. Their first English single, “Dynamite,” arrived in 2020 and set streaming benchmarks that have only grown stronger since. The track has now passed 2.2 billion streams on Spotify alone, while later releases such as the 2026 album Arirang continue to reset group records. BTS remains a dominant force on every major platform, yet their relationship with one of the world’s largest markets has stayed complicated for years.

Enter China

In October 2020, Chinese state tabloid Global Times accused BTS of slighting the country after the group accepted the James A. Van Fleet Award in New York. The honor recognizes contributions to U.S.-Korea relations, and the seven members—RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook—received it for their cultural work. RM’s acceptance remarks referenced the shared history of pain between the United States and Korea and called for deeper global solidarity. Global Times framed the comments as one-sided, prompting online criticism and the swift removal of BTS images from major Chinese platforms. The backlash did not occur in isolation; it amplified restrictions already in place since 2016 over the THAAD missile dispute, when Beijing began limiting Korean entertainment across film, television, and music. Those curbs have remained largely intact, leaving China off the itinerary for BTS’s 2026 world tour.

Long-Term Market Access Restrictions

The 2020 episode highlighted how quickly cultural access can narrow when political friction rises. China’s unofficial ban on most South Korean content has now stretched a decade, affecting everything from variety shows to concert tours. Industry observers note that even high-profile acts with massive Chinese followings have been unable to schedule dates or promote new material inside the country. BTS’s 2026 routing simply continues that pattern, with no mainland stops listed despite earlier hopes for a thaw. South Korean officials have continued quiet diplomacy, including President Lee Jae-myung’s January 2026 visit to Beijing, yet concrete steps to restore full market access remain limited.

BTS Military Service and Group Reunion

Between 2022 and 2025, each BTS member completed South Korea’s mandatory military service, pausing group activities for nearly three years. All seven members finished their obligations by June 2025. The full lineup returned with a new album and tour announcement in early 2026, confirming the group’s intent to resume as a seven-piece act. The hiatus shifted attention to solo projects and subunit releases, but the reunion has refocused global interest on collective milestones that began with tracks like “Dynamite.”

Evolution of BTS Streaming Legacy

Early coverage of “Dynamite” centered on its first-week numbers—450 million YouTube views inside months and a Spotify debut that briefly topped Taylor Swift. Those figures now sit inside a much larger catalog. The song’s cumulative streams have more than tripled since launch, and the group’s overall catalog exceeds 30 billion streams across platforms. Newer singles routinely debut in the hundreds of millions within days, showing that the 2020 benchmarks served as a foundation rather than a ceiling. Streaming data from 2026 continues to place multiple BTS titles inside Spotify’s all-time top 50.

Fanbase Scale and Global Reach

The BTS ARMY—short for Adorable Representative MC for Youth—now numbers between 90 and 136 million fans worldwide. Recent tour data shows strong attendance from non-Asian markets and from Gen X and Millennial listeners alongside the core Gen Z demographic. Fan projects routinely trend on every major social platform, and the community’s purchasing power has supported multiple stadium runs and large-scale charity campaigns. That breadth helps explain why temporary platform restrictions in any single country rarely slow overall momentum.

Fans to the rescue

Supporters responded quickly to the 2020 coverage. One fan wrote that Chinese netizens were “making an issue out of nowhere,” while another noted the award focused solely on U.S.-Korea relations and required no apology from the group. Later platform actions included Weibo’s 2021 suspension of several BTS fan accounts over fundraising concerns unrelated to the speech itself. Reports that a limited-edition Samsung BTS phone vanished from Chinese retail sites proved temporary; the devices sold out rather than faced an official block. Market friction has persisted, yet fan spending and streaming numbers outside China have continued without interruption.