Vietnam has banned the highly anticipated US blockbuster Barbie due to scenes showing a map featuring Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea, state media reported on Monday. This map shows a geographical demarcation unique to China, known as the “nine-dotted line”, which defines Beijing’s claims to these disputed waters, on which Hanoi has rival claims.
The Hollywood comedy about the famous Mattel doll, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was supposed to be released in Vietnam on July 21, but Vietnamese movie chains have removed the release date from their website. “The National Film Rating and Classification Council has viewed the film and made the decision to ban its screening in Vietnam due to a violation related to the nine-dotted line,” said the director of the Department. of Vietnamese cinema, Vi Kien to the information site Dan Tri.
Another state media, Tien Phong, reported that the map showing this line appeared in several scenes in the film. This territorial dispute has already had consequences on other films in the recent past in Vietnam, a communist country which largely practices censorship. Last year, Uncharted, the action adventure film starring Tom Holland, was also banned from cinemas for the same reason.
In the 2018 American romantic comedy “Crazy Rich Asians”, a scene was cut in the country, because it showed a branded bag with a map showing the disputed islands of the South China Sea under the control of Beijing. A year later, Hanoi pulled the DreamWorks animated film Abominable from the screens. Then last year Netflix had to delete episodes of its series Pine Gap” for similar scenes.
The South China Sea, home to valuable oil and gas deposits in particular, is the subject of competing sovereignty claims. Several of China’s neighbors fear that Beijing is seeking to extend its hold there.
