‘Barbie’ Banned In Vietnam Over Map Showing China’s Claims In South China Sea

Vietnam has banned commercial screenings of Warner Bros’ Barbie due to a scene that depicts a map of the South China Sea with the “nine-dash line” that is contested by the Vietnamese government. 

The film, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was scheduled for release in Vietnam on July 21. 

The controversial “nine-dash line” represents China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, which Vietnam disputes. The U-shaped line was also repudiated in an international arbitration ruling by a court in The Hague in 2016. China refuses to recognise the ruling. 

Vi Kien Thanh, director general of the Vietnam Cinema Department, under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the ban was decided by Vietnam’s National Film Evaluation Council. 

“We do not grant a licence for the American movie Barbie to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line,” he was quoted as saying in state-run newspaper Tuoi Tre.

Other films depicting the line have been banned in Vietnam in recent years, including DreamWorks animation Abominable and Sony’s Unchartered, while Netflix was ordered to remove Australian spy drama Pine Gap from its service in Vietnam in 2021. 

China, Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei all have competing claims in the South China Sea.