Vietnam has banned the distribution of the movie “Barbie” for including an image of a map with Chinese claims to disputed waters in the South China Sea, local media reported Tuesday.
The Vietnam Express newspaper and other Vietnamese media said “Barbie” billboards have been removed from the websites of film distributors following Monday’s decision.
Starring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, Greta Gerwig’s comedy is set to open in Vietnamese theaters on July 21.
Vietnam Film Bureau Director General Vi Kien Thanh said the decision was made by the Vietnam Film Evaluation Board.
The map in the film shows China’s “nine-dash line”, related to Beijing’s sovereignty claims over most of the South China Sea, rejected by Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.
In 2016, an international court ruled that the “nine-dash line” has no legal basis and that the Philippines was entitled to an exclusive economic zone in part of the area claimed by Beijing. China rejected the decision.
China claims that most of the South China Sea lies within the “nine-dash line” used to demarcate what it considers to be the maritime border.
This claim has led to tense clashes between China and the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines), with increasingly aggressive Chinese fishing boats and military ships in disputed waters. .
In 2019, Vietnam ordered the cancellation of the screening of “Abominable” after viewers complained about a scene that displayed the “nine-dash line.”
Philippine politicians called for a boycott of all releases by American production company DreamWorks in protest of the scene, and Malaysia ordered the scene removed from the film.
Source: TSF
