‘Barbie’ movie banned in Vietnam over disputed map with China

Vietnam has banned the highly anticipated American blockbuster Barbie due to scenes showing a map showing Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea, state media reported on Monday. This map shows a geographical delimitation unique to China, known as the “nine-dotted line”, which defines Beijing’s claims on these disputed waters, on which Hanoi has rival claims.

Many precedents

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 Board viewed the film and took the decision to ban the screening in Vietnam due to a violation related to the nine-dotted line,” Vietnamese Film Department director Vi Kien told the Dan Tri news site.

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 and 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, as it showed a branded bag with a map showing the disputed islands in the South China Sea under Beijing’s control. A year later, Hanoi pulled the DreamWorks animated film from the screens Abominable. 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.