Vietnam Bans 'Barbie' Movie Over A Map Illustrating China's Disputed Territorial Claims In South China Sea

Vietnam has banned the Hollywood movie 'Barbie' starring Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie, due to a map depicting Chinese territorial claims of nine-dash lines in the South China Sea (SCS).

The nine-dash lines is a hypothetical line created by the Chinese to further theirr claims, in the SCS. The nine-dash line extends into territorial waters of nations in the SCS like Vietnam, Malaysia and Philippines.

The International Court of Justice in the Hague, in 2016, determined that the nine-dash line was illegal, and the China's has no basis for these claims.

According to a report by various Vietnamese media houses, the Vietnamese government has deemed the depiction of a map showing nine-dash line as illegal and banned the movie.

"A Map in the film shows China’s 'nine-dash line' which extends Beijing’s territorial claims far into waters that fall within areas claimed by Vietnam and other countries," said the director general of Vietna, Cinema department adding that the decision was made by the National Film Evaluation Council.

Vietnam in 2019 as well, has banned the movie 'Abominable' which also depicted the nine-dash line.

Any production house not following the Beijing's diktat faces severe backlash and its shows in the country are closed.

Earlier, Beijing has censored the movie Spider-man: No Way Home when its producers denied Beijing's demand to remove the Statue of Liberty from the movie.

Interestingly, the Vietnamese decision to ban the 'barbie' movie is coming at a time when just four days ago (30 June), Pentagon — US department of defence — has issued directions to production houses, to not follow the Chinese government diktat.

The US military helps various Hollywood production houses to shoot movies on military bases, Navy ships, helicopters and fighter jets, making the movie more realistic, while the US military gets favourable depictions of their soldiers in the movies.

According to a report by Politico, the US Pentagon in a document said, "we will not provide production assistance when there is demonstrable evidence that the production has complied or is likely to comply with a demand from the Government of the People’s Republic of China … to censor the content of the project in a material manner to advance the national interest of the People’s Republic of China".