MANILA – There will be no nine-dash line in the South China Sea of Barbie’s world, said the Philippines’ Movie and Television Review Classification Board on Wednesday, as it gave the go-ahead to the domestic screening of the Warner Bros film.
The Philippines’ MTRCB said: “The Review Committee is convinced that the contentious scene does not depict the ‘nine-dash line’. Instead, the map portrayed the route of the make-believe journey of Barbie from Barbie Land to the ‘real world’, as an integral part of the story.” The original version of the controversial map in the film released by MTRCB with permission from Warner Bros, which was seen by The Straits Times, shows dash lines not only next to the land mass representing Asia, but also beside illustrations depicting the United States, Greenland, Brazil and Africa.
“Rest assured that the Board exhausted all possible resources in arriving at this decision as we have not hesitated in the past to sanction filmmakers/producers/distributors for exhibiting the fictitious ‘nine-dash line’ in their materials,” the MTRCB said. In 2013, Manila brought China before a tribunal constituted under the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands, to challenge its expansive claim over the disputed sea.
The Philippine military recently raised “alarming concerns” after finding a larger number of Chinese militia vessels and maritime assets swarming parts of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.