BEIJING — Has K-pop become one of the first victims of a recent fraying of relations between China and South Korea?

When South Korea angered China last month by agreeing to allow a United States missile-defense system on its soil, there was much speculation that Beijing would retaliate economically. Now signs have emerged that China is targeting some of the South’s most colorful exports: its brand of popular music known as K-pop and its widely popular television shows.

South Korean popular culture is huge in China, which in recent years has become the largest export market for the South Korean entertainment industry. But in the past week, several events in China featuring music and television stars have been called off, and those cancellations have caused jitters in both countries and sent the stock prices of some of South Korea’s top entertainment companies tumbling.

The cancellations may have been coincidental, but several employees at South Korean and Chinese media companies, who requested anonymity because they feared jeopardizing business in the future, expressed worries that there had been official pressure to put some South Korean projects on hold.