SEOUL — EXO’s Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin are moving ahead with a string of fan events in mainland China only days after a South Korean court handed the trio a significant — but temporary — victory in their escalating contract battle.
The three singers, collectively known as EXO-CBX, are scheduled to meet Chinese fans beginning later this month, according to the Korea Herald and announcements from Chinese organiser StarDream.
Xiumin is scheduled for a Shanghai event on September 26, followed by Chen in the same city on September 27. Baekhyun then has three events planned: Shanghai on October 2, Qingdao on October 4 and Dalian on October 6.
The timing is difficult to ignore.
Just two days before the Korea Herald reported the China schedule, the Seoul Central District Court suspended CBX’s exclusive contracts with INB100, finding that the agency had failed to pay required settlements and that the relationship of trust between the artists and company had broken down.
That ruling gives the three members significantly more freedom to pursue their own entertainment activities while their main lawsuit continues.
But it does not mean their legal problems are finished.
In fact, the China appearances arrive while CBX remain caught between two different disputes involving two different entertainment companies.
The court win against INB100 was significant — but temporary
On September 15, the Seoul Central District Court’s 50th Civil Division granted CBX’s application for an injunction suspending the effect of their exclusive contracts with INB100.
The contracts will remain suspended until the first-instance judgment in CBX’s main lawsuit seeking confirmation that the contracts are no longer valid.
The court went further.
It prohibited INB100 from entering into entertainment contracts with broadcasters or other third parties against the members’ wishes, demanding that they carry out entertainment activities, or interfering with their independent work.
That distinction matters enormously for the China schedule.
The injunction means CBX can, for the time being, pursue independent entertainment work without INB100 exercising the control normally associated with an exclusive management contract.
But the ruling is not a final judgment permanently terminating those contracts.
That issue still belongs to the main lawsuit.
The court said unpaid settlements destroyed the relationship of trust
The core issue is money.
According to the court, INB100 had a contractual obligation to pay settlement amounts when CBX’s entertainment activities generated revenue but failed to make those payments.
The court concluded that INB100’s failure had damaged the basic trust required for an exclusive entertainment relationship to continue normally.
CBX had previously notified the company that they intended to terminate their contracts, citing unpaid signing payments and entertainment settlements.
Korea JoongAng Daily reported that the trio filed both the injunction and a main lawsuit on August 18 after their termination notice failed to resolve the dispute.
The Korea Herald has cited an estimate of about 12 billion won, roughly US$8.7 million, in unpaid money. However, the publicly reported court ruling did not itself establish that figure as the definitive amount owed, so it should be treated as a reported estimate rather than a judicially confirmed damages figure.
There is an unusual twist: Baekhyun originally founded INB100
This is not the typical story of artists fighting an agency they joined as outsiders.
Baekhyun himself established INB100 in 2023 after moving his individual activities away from SM Entertainment.
Chen and Xiumin subsequently joined him.
Then, in May 2024, INB100 was incorporated into One Hundred Label, controlled by Cha Ga-won.
That relationship has since deteriorated dramatically.
CBX say their settlement payments were not made.
The court has now temporarily suspended the contracts.
And One Hundred Label has faced a broader wave of contract disputes involving artists who have also alleged unpaid settlements. Korea JoongAng Daily has reported that artists including Lee Seung-gi, Lee Mu-jin and The Boyz have moved to end agreements involving One Hundred or its subsidiaries.
Those are separate contractual situations and should not be treated as proof that every allegation against the company is identical.
But they add important context to the turmoil surrounding the label.
One Hundred’s chief is also facing a separate criminal case
One Hundred Label chairperson Cha Ga-won has separately been indicted and detained over allegations involving approximately 30 billion won, or about US$22 million, in fraud.
Her first trial is scheduled for October 13, according to Korea JoongAng Daily.
That criminal case is separate from CBX’s contract lawsuit.
Cha has been charged, not convicted, and the fraud allegations should not be presented as though they establish liability in the unpaid-settlement dispute.
The distinction is important because both stories involve the same corporate group but concern different legal claims.
The China events show CBX are not waiting for the lawsuit to finish
The scheduled appearances suggest the trio intend to continue working while their legal situation develops.
Chinese organiser StarDream has promoted the events through its verified social-media account.
Its announcements list Xiumin’s and Chen’s Shanghai meetings for September 26 and 27.
For Baekhyun, the company has advertised a three-city “2026 BAEKHYUN LAND” schedule: Shanghai on October 2, Qingdao on October 4 and Dalian on October 6.
StarDream’s posts describe the Baekhyun venues as non-public locations, with access packages sold through Chinese platforms including Xiaomang, Ctrip and ShowStart.
That makes these events different from a large arena tour.
They are fan meetings rather than evidence that mainland China has fully reopened its large-scale concert market to Korean performers.
That distinction matters because K-pop still faces an unusual situation in China
Mainland China has remained one of K-pop’s most complicated markets for nearly a decade.
After South Korea agreed to deploy the U.S. THAAD missile-defense system in 2016, Korean entertainment faced what has widely been described as an unofficial Chinese restriction on the “Korean Wave”, or Hallyu.
Large K-pop concerts largely disappeared from the mainland, Korean television content faced distribution barriers and many Korean stars shifted their Chinese activities toward Hong Kong, Macau or smaller events. Beijing has never formally acknowledged imposing a blanket Hallyu ban.
There have been signs of gradual easing.
Korean music has become more visible again in some Chinese retail and streaming channels, while diplomatic relations between Beijing and Seoul have improved in some areas.
But reporting from the Korea Times and South China Morning Post earlier this year stressed that entertainment executives were still cautious about declaring a full reopening.
That makes CBX’s China schedule commercially notable.
It does not, by itself, prove that China’s broader restrictions on Korean entertainment have ended.
Baekhyun has already been reconnecting with Chinese fans
Baekhyun’s China activity did not begin with October’s fan meetings.
A verified INB100 Baekhyun account posted from Shanghai following a September 12 fan-signing event, thanking Chinese fans after an event connected with his China photobook.
The new three-city run therefore extends an already growing effort to rebuild direct contact with mainland Chinese fans.
For K-pop artists with large Chinese fan bases, that market remains potentially enormous.
China has long been an important source of album purchases, fan-club activity, luxury-brand engagement and social-media attention for Korean idols even during periods when large concerts were difficult to stage.
But the INB100 case is only half of CBX’s legal problem
This is where the story becomes more complicated.
CBX are also involved in a separate dispute with EXO’s longtime agency, SM Entertainment.
That conflict traces back to 2023, when Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin challenged aspects of their SM contracts and settlement information.
The parties ultimately reached an arrangement under which CBX could conduct individual activities independently while their EXO group activities remained connected to SM.
The relationship later broke down again over a contractual provision under which SM says CBX agreed to remit 10% of revenue from their independent activities.
CBX and SM have disputed how that agreement should be interpreted and implemented.
That case is completely separate from the new INB100 injunction.
Winning against INB100 does not resolve CBX’s dispute with SM.
And that is why CBX still are not participating in EXO’s current group activities
EXO returned in January 2026 with its eighth full-length album, “Reverxe”, its first album in roughly two and a half years.
But Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin were absent.
The group subsequently embarked on its “EXO Planet #6 – EXhOrizon” tour without CBX.
Korea JoongAng Daily reported in August that EXO had completed 27 shows across 14 cities during its Asian tour, with encore concerts scheduled at Seoul’s KSPO Dome from November 6 to 8.
CBX’s group activities remain on hold amid the SM dispute.
So even though the three singers have just won more freedom over their individual management, that does not automatically reopen the door to current EXO promotions.
It creates a strange new reality for EXO fans
Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin are still officially identified with EXO.
They formed EXO-CBX in 2016, becoming the group’s first official subunit.
But in 2026, two legal tracks have split their professional lives in unusual ways.
One dispute concerns who controls and pays for their independent careers.
The other concerns their relationship with SM and participation in EXO.
The INB100 court ruling addresses the first.
It does not solve the second.
That is why headlines declaring that CBX are now simply “free” would go too far.
They have won important temporary relief from one company.
They remain in litigation elsewhere.
Their China comeback may therefore be a test of what independence looks like
In practical terms, the coming weeks could provide the first clear indication of how CBX operate under the court’s injunction.
Xiumin goes first in Shanghai.
Chen follows a day later.
Then Baekhyun takes the biggest itinerary, moving through Shanghai, Qingdao and Dalian.
Those appearances offer something the legal filings cannot:
evidence of whether the trio can keep their individual careers moving while the corporate structures around them are being contested.
For Baekhyun in particular, that is significant.
He created INB100 precisely because he wanted a vehicle for his independent work.
Three years later, he is now litigating to escape the contract structure attached to the company he founded.
And the main case can still change everything
An injunction is designed to protect the parties while a larger legal dispute is resolved.
It is not the final trial.
The Seoul court explicitly suspended CBX’s INB100 contracts until the first-instance judgment in the main case.
No final judgment has yet permanently declared those contracts void.
That means the underlying legal battle remains active even while the singers perform independently.
The China events are therefore taking place during a legal transition — not after one has conclusively ended.
China adds another layer of uncertainty
The country itself represents opportunity and uncertainty in equal measure.
China contains one of the world’s largest entertainment audiences and historically has been enormously important to K-pop.
Yet Korean acts have spent most of the past decade navigating an unofficial and unpredictable environment in which approvals for concerts or entertainment appearances could be difficult to secure.
Smaller fan events and private venues can therefore carry more significance than their size suggests.
But analysts have repeatedly cautioned against interpreting individual Korean artists appearing in China as proof of a government-level policy reversal.
CBX’s upcoming events should be understood in precisely that context.
They are a meaningful return to mainland fans.
They are not confirmation that the Hallyu restrictions are gone.
The biggest story may be what happens after October 6
By early October, Baekhyun, Chen and Xiumin could have completed five scheduled fan events across four Chinese cities.
Around the same period, their broader corporate and legal environment will still be moving.
The main INB100 contract lawsuit remains unresolved.
One Hundred chair Cha Ga-won’s separate criminal trial is scheduled to begin October 13.
And CBX’s relationship with SM Entertainment remains a separate unresolved issue affecting their participation in EXO activities.
That leaves the trio in an unusual position.
A court has given them temporary freedom to pursue their own careers.
Chinese promoters are putting them back in front of mainland fans.
But neither of the two major legal disputes surrounding them has actually reached its final chapter.
CBX may be heading back on stage — but offstage, the fight over who controls their future is far from finished.
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