The Boston-based promoter and publicist Adam Lewis calls his agency the Planetary Group, but until this weekend the moniker was perhaps a bit, shall we say, overreaching — most of his business has been concentrated in the Northeast. His vision paid off, though, because Lewis appears to have pulled off a global coup. This past Sunday, he got on a plane with one of his clients, a little-known Boston-based indie-label college-rock band called Missing Joe, and embarked for Shanghai, China. The band, which has never toured outside the United States, is booked into a Shanghai club called ARK Live House for three nights, May 16, 17, and 18.

If all goes as planned, Lewis will be sending over a band per month; next up on the schedule is Star64, a group made up of former members of the Boston outfit Angry Salad. In effect, he’s opening up a pipeline between Boston and the last major Communist power on earth, which is not widely noted for its support of rock and roll.

So how did Lewis do it? "I’m still asking that myself," Lewis chuckled last Friday, before heading to Shanghai. "I’ve been losing sleep over this." He was still holding his cards close to the vest: up until the previous Wednesday, he was convinced that the final approval for the gigs, which have been in the planning stages for a year and a half, wouldn’t come through. Lewis is collaborating with China-based Kelly Wilkes Entertainment — a group of American entrepreneurs that includes former Planetary Group associate Adam Wilkes. The Missing Joe and Star64 engagements are part of something called the Heineken Music Heaven Concert Series, which is sponsored by both the beer company and JAL airlines. The opening act for Missing Joe is being provided by a China-based Sony International recording artist called Sasha.

"I entered into this assuming it would never work, that it was a total lark, but I couldn’t walk away from it," Lewis said. "The biggest problem was getting visas: we had to do all this paperwork, which was a very long and drawn-out process. Then I shipped all that over to China to get processed, and then they issue a certificate that acts as a formal invitation stating that you’re invited to come — it says you’re welcome to come under such-and-such a company’s sponsorship. You can’t just show up; someone has to say, ‘We want you.’ That took about six weeks. When we got that we applied for the band’s work visas over here at the Chinese consulate in New York. We got them back two weeks ago."

But don’t expect to see, say, a band with a horn section headed to China anytime soon. "We’re not allowed to have five people on stage," Lewis said. "Anything more than four, under Chinese law, is illegal — it’s considered inciting a riot." But Lewis is happy to join the ranks of American companies doing business in China, for much the same reason as everyone else: it’s a seller’s market. "They don’t have American rock bands coming to China," he says. "Most of the rock music they get over there is cover bands out of the Philippines — and most of what they have is dance-disco-type stuff. We need to introduce them to pop-rock."