Vietnam has banned the upcoming Barbie movie over a scene in which a map of disputed Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea is shown.
Vietnam is one of many countries that disagree with China’s assertion of its sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea.
The movie about the famous doll, which has already dominated social media, will debut in theatres on July 21.
Which scene represents the “offensive image” of China’s nine-dash line, as described by a senior official, is unclear.
Chinese maps of the South China Sea display their territorial claims using the nine-dash line.
In an effort to bolster its territorial claims, Beijing has been constructing military bases on man-made islands in the region for years and has frequently conducts naval patrols in the area.
Beijing did not acknowledge the decision made in 2016 by an international tribunal in The Hague, which rejected Chinese claims in the South China Sea.
Barbie, a movie produced by Warner Bros., is not the only one that Vietnam has banned because it uses the nine-dash line.
The Abominable animated movie from DreamWorks was pulled in 2019 for the same reason. Three years later, the Department of Cinema, a government agency in charge of licensing and censoring foreign films, took issue with the Sony action film Uncharted.
Pine Gap, an Australian spy drama, was taken off Netflix’s Vietnamese market two years ago as a result of a complaint from the authorities.
China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei all have competing claims in the South China Sea.
Source-BBC
