HANOI - Vietnam has banned Warner Bros’ highly-anticipated film “Barbie” from domestic distribution over a scene featuring a map that shows China’s unilaterally claimed territory in the South China Sea, state media reported on Monday.
The U-shaped “nine-dash line” is used on Chinese maps to illustrate its claims over vast areas of the South China Sea, including swathes of what Vietnam considers its continental shelf, where it has awarded oil concessions. “Barbie” is the latest movie to be banned in Vietnam for depicting China’s controversial nine-dash line, which wasIn 2019 the Vietnamese government pulled DreamWorks’ animated film “Abominable” and last year“Barbie”, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was originally slated to open in Vietnam on July 21, the same date as in the United States, according to state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper.
“We do not grant licence for the American movie ‘Barbie’ to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line,” the paper reported, citing Mr Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema, a government body in charge of licensing and censoring foreign films.Vietnam and China have long had overlapping territorial claims to a potentially energy-rich stretch in the South China Sea.