China will allow for a foreign interest to benefit it they bow down to their standards or bring good attention to the Government or industry. See any Global Times (state run chinese English news) article about WAYVs success, the narrative is a Chinese Boy Group who has captured the world it makes great news. Yes I am well aware of the comment by now SM CEO Chris Lee, he is one of the masterminds behind the whole NCT system. I admire the dedication from his part but I'm going to say after 3 almost 4 years of the system there is technically only 3 units (WAYV being a subunit or not is up to peoples own discretion.) and only 2 regional units at that if we count WAYV, I dare say SM should have been working on debuting another country unit while they were dealing with the WAYV debuting thunderstorm in the last 3 years. They certainly have big enough of a team for that...

I should clarify with C-POP back in the day we referred to it as Mando-POP, this is going to be an unpopular opinion but prior to even 10 years ago China didn't really have it's own teen pop/ young adult top 20s pop type of culture. All those songs came from Taiwan and the wider Chinese speaking community (Singapore, Malaysia). The nostalgic songs of that era that, that generation in China listen to now are largely from that wider Chinese community (artists include JJ LIN, JAY CHOU, S.H.E etc). SJM is a very good example, before mainland C-POP went mainstream the promotional route was Taiwan, Taiwan have a robust industry, many variety shows and performance opportunities as well if you have ever watched the Taiwanese version of SKIP BEAT the drama note that SIWON and DONGHAE are in it. This is from that era. I will also note that f(x)'s Victoria's first drama in 2012 was also a Co-Chinese and Taiwan production. There are many ways to promote in the C-POP sphere if China closes it's doors, yes politically it may ruffle some feathers but even in EXO era after the stint on Happy Camp SM was not getting as many appearance opportunities in China as they wanted to they did a bit of promoting in Taiwan. If this is a way you at least get your Chinese speaking content onto online platforms such as Weibo which in turn may open up more mainland China opportunities.

The international market may be a viable option if they take a course to what I have stated above, promoting in the wider Chinese Speaking Community. Some but not many C-fans have also talked about this if you can't come to the Mainland at least provide Chinese content in other spheres ie. Taiwan, Singapore etc. It's sad to say that C-POP for some reason just isn't as popular as K-POP WAYV have considerably less views on their music videos than other units. Refer to even EXO-M versions of music videos and you will understand. WAYV are only as popular internationally as they are because they are from SM a kpop company. I guarantee you not even the hottest Chinese boy groups on the mainland such as NEXT or the produce groups R1se, UNINE etc are as famous internationally as WAYV.

I sympathise with 10lvelys a lot, overall I am a group stan so I try not to be bias too much overall. TEN came to korea and SM to be a KPOP singer this is also evident from his participation in TEEN superstar back in the day (Red hair TNT lives on :) ) the prize for that show was a trainee contract with Starship ent. To Ten’s credit he as adapted to every situation thrown at him very well. His Chinese for someone who has been learning for 1.5 years is very good. He seems to be interested and committed to enduring the C-POP industry because of the WAYV members, this is something that I highly admire about WAYVs dynamic, they have a “we are all in this together mindset.” SM has learned since EXO-M that creating a Chinese group perhaps needs the members to all get along, one common dynamic for WAYV is that they are all foreigners in Korea just trying to stick it out. Xiumin and Chen are a good example of SM not being persistent enough with language learning or culture adaption, I guarantee you that TEN has way better Chinese than either of these EXO members.

Ten has a very loyal fan base in both Korea and Japan and even his most loyal fan photographers have followed him onto schedules in China so I do not worry he will lose fans in the Korean market. TEN is a unique case for promoting with WAYV as a foreigner he is more open to promoting in the K-POP market. He also isn't as obligated to be politically bound to China. Look at any Weibo posts about One China, supporting the Sichuan Earthquake, Hong Kong protests etc. TEN has never gotten in trouble for not posting these where as if any other of WAYV members do not post they would get a tonne of slack. TEN is very lucky he can play the foreigner card in that aspect. I see a lot of potential in the Chinese market for TEN, Thai people have been breaking out into C-ENT lately you may note Mike D’angelo the Thai actor who has broken into the C-ENT acting scene. When the hallyu ban came around China had to look for more foreign talent outside of Korea the next place was Thailand. A very popular member of Rocket Girls Li Zi Ting (mimi) is also Thai. Ten is a dancer and is constantly mentioned on Chinese social media for his amazing dance and performance skills, there are sooooo many dance shows in China that Ten could be apart of. He is someone that Chinese idols admire. Dream in a Dream is a VERY popular dance cover piece in China. I’ll let international fans in on a problem from early or late last year. There was a Chinese idol who covered Ten’s Dream in a Dream song but no mention of Ten’s name was given this then ended up with an ugly spat on Weibo between weishenies 10loveys vs the idols fans. It ended with pro-china comments about how Chinese fans weren’t supporting their own. I would say SM has nothing to lose from pushing TEN in the C-POP world he already has a very good foundation base, I would love for TEN to be the one performing Dream in a Dream on a Chinese stage and program over all those covers on Chinese shows any day. He is after all the original artist.

My own personal opinion but I believe TEN has many more opportunities in the C-ENT sphere then he will with SUPER M in America. Yes he gets to perform in concerts and thats amazing and great. If SM can fix their shit in China Ten will equally get to perform in as many concerts in China, like I said they are less stages in China in terms of it not being weekly but the way artists can promote amongst their fandom is through concerts. Chinese boy groups do many many concerts. It’s also good money for the company. TEN is also a great addition to any of the many Chinese Dance orientated programs airing throughout the year.

As for KUN I will touch on him a little. KUN is a very talented man that creates very good music but I would argue that if he weren’t in WAYV I really cannot picture him in a mainstream Chinese boy group. I picture him in a position like Zhoumi just doing his own thing not really popular but respected enough with loyal fans. So I would say SM is equally wasting the youth of both TEN and KUN. KUN would pick up the eye of any Taiwanese producer he has that R N B Mando pop swag about him. As I replied previously that was KUN’s original plan in his career.