A vintage map of the East Asian coast with a blue line from Korea to China, pen and coffee beside it

He Wasn’t Exiled to China. He Planned It 19 Years Ago.

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Part 4 of 7 in Lee Soo-man and A2O

Previously: Whatever people say, A2O’s success shows that at 74, Lee Soo-man is still the emperor of K-pop. (Part 3)

On the surface, Lee Soo-man is the man who got thrown out of SM, the company named after him, and went to China. In reality he followed a map he had been describing in public for 19 years, and that map now stands at the door of the biggest market of all: China. As someone who loves K-pop, I find this part of his story both heartbreaking and deeply admirable. A man forced out of the company that bears his name at 70 never once changed the direction of his dream.

From founder to outcast in ten days

The S and M in SM come from Soo Man’s name (Wikipedia). He founded the company in 1995 and put his name on almost every scene of K-pop’s 30 years, from H.O.T. to aespa. Then, suddenly, he was pushed out of the company he had built.

The activist fund Align Partners took aim at a deal under which Lee’s private company, Like Planning, took a cut of SM’s record revenue, and after Lee gave notice to end it early, the contract ended on Dec. 31, 2022 (Nocut News; Newsis, Feb. 10, 2023). On Feb. 3, 2023, SM’s management announced “SM 3.0,” a plan to run production through several producers without Lee, and on the same day a plan emerged for Kakao to take 9.05% of SM through new shares (Nocut News; KED Global).

On Feb. 10, Bang Si-hyuk’s HYBE, the company behind BTS, announced it would buy Lee’s 14.8% stake in SM for about $320 million (₩422.8 billion, roughly $92 a share) (CEO Score Daily, Feb. 13, 2023). Lee handed his own company’s shares to a rival, and in return accepted a condition that for the next three years he would produce only outside Korea (Nocut News; Herald Economy, Feb. 2026). In just over ten days he went from the founder of the company that bore his name to a man who could not make music in Korea.

Also read: The Lonely Night Shin Hae-chul Sang for Him: "Empty Tonight"

But the road had been drawn back in 2007

In 2007, in front of students at Harvard Business School, Lee asked, “Where will the Hollywood of the East be built?” and answered his own question: China. Then he said, “Creating joint ventures is the goal of the third Korean wave,” and “Korea and China must join forces so that China can become No. 1 in the world” (Nocut News, June 5, 2007; Korea JoongAng Daily).

Year What he said and did
2007 Harvard lecture: “The Hollywood of the East is China”
2011 Three stages of Hallyu: (1) export cultural products, (2) partner with local companies and stars, (3) set up joint ventures abroad and hand over Korea’s “culture technology”
2016 Unveiled NCT: local teams in city after city, built on his culture technology
2020 On a Chengdu TV show: wants to make an audition program in China and produce stars
2021 On tvN: China should be made “the Hollywood of Asia”
2023 After leaving SM, started new work in China
2024 Trainee auditions in China and Japan; A2O MAY debuts in December
2026 A2O LITE and A2O SOUL debut in Korea; “NEON” hits No. 1 on Korea’s Melon and China’s QQ Music at once

Sources: Nocut News; Kyunghyang Shinmun, June 12, 2011; Jeonbuk Ilbo; Tenasia, Jan. 27, 2016; News Tomato, Jan. 2020; Hankook Ilbo; TV Report, Oct. 2026; Korea JoongAng Daily, July 2023; The Korea Times, Oct. 2024; Tenasia, Oct. 23, 2026.

His words never changed once. Getting thrown out only stamped a date on the map.

When A2O LITE took off, the 2021 tvN clip went around again, trailed by comments like “How is this different from industrial espionage?” (TV Report, Oct. 2026). But he never proposed handing the know-how over. He proposed going into that market and making K-pop with that market’s own talent. It was something people didn’t want to hear, not something he hid.

K-pop born first in China, then back in Korean

A2O MAY, which debuted on Dec. 20, 2024, has five members: three Chinese nationals and Chinese American twins born in Hawaii (The Korea Herald). Its debut song “Under My Skin” is a remake of TVXQ’s “MIROTIC” (Asia Blooming). They sing in English and Chinese, but they are a thoroughly Korean-style group, trained through a program called “A2O Rookies” where trainees were split into classes by age. They topped China’s QQ Music new song chart (Cineplay) and peaked at No. 32 on the U.S. Mediabase Top 40 with “BOSS” (Tenasia, Dec. 2025), then held its first fan meeting in Shanghai in November 2025 (Sports Kyunghyang, Nov. 23, 2025). It is the first real execution of the last stage of his 2011 plan: go into the local market and build with local talent.

A2O LITE is that formula exported back to Korea. Of its nine members, three are Chinese, three are Korean, and three are Japanese, Thai, or American with Japanese dual nationality (Kpop Herald), and all of them sing in Korean. That song became No. 1 in Korea in 29 hours.

Split image: dancers in red on a red-scaffold stage, dancers in white on a lavender stage, same pose
Red stage, white stage, same move.

The K-pop system worked abroad. Will it open China?

Whatever Korean fandom feels about China, the third stage Lee has talked about all along, going into a local market and making K-pop with local talent, has succeeded. That is reality. A Chinese-heritage group trained the Korean way reached No. 1 on China’s QQ Music (Cineplay), and a group built with the same formula reached No. 1 on Korea’s Melon (Tenasia, Oct. 23, 2026).

And the place where it happened is none other than China. Korean acts still can’t play mainland China, but his group, born first in China, has already stood on a Shanghai stage. China’s K-pop market, which no Korean agency can get into, may now be his chance to take alone.

What you can see right now is the dance lines of passionate, pure young girls. What stands behind those dance lines is the first case of the K-pop system being moved outside Korea whole and actually working. It may be a giant leap for K-pop.

The next part measures the size of that chance. China’s concert market alone is bigger than the combined revenue of Korea’s four biggest K-pop companies.

Lee Soo-man and A2O · Part 4 of 7

Part 5 arrives Oct. 29.

← Part 3: 74 and Not Done: The Emperor of K-pop Refuses to Age

See all parts

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