Vietnam has banned the highly-anticipated US blockbuster Barbie over scenes showing a map showing Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea, state media reported Monday.
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This map shows a geographic demarcation unique to China, known as the “nine-point line,” which defines Beijing’s claims to these disputed waters to which Hanoi has competing claims.
The Hollywood comedy about the famous Mattel doll, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was originally scheduled to hit theaters in Vietnam on July 21, but Vietnamese film chains have removed the release date from their website.
“The National Film Rating and Classification Board reviewed the film and decided to ban its screening in Vietnam for violating the ‘nine point line,'” the director said. Vi Kien from Vietnam Film Department at Dan Tri news site.
Another state media outlet, Tien Phong, reported that the map showing this line appeared in several scenes in the film.
This territorial dispute has had repercussions on other recent films made in Vietnam, a communist country where censorship is widespread.
For the same reason, Uncharted, the action-adventure film starring Tom Holland, was banned from cinemas last year.
In the 2018 American romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians, a scene in the country showing a branded bag with a map of the disputed South China Sea islands under Beijing control was cut.
A year later, Hanoi pulled the DreamWorks animated film “Abominable” off the screens. Then last year, Netflix had to remove episodes of its Pine Gap series because of similar scenes.
In particular, the South China Sea, which is home to valuable oil and gas deposits, is the subject of competing claims of sovereignty. Several of China’s neighbors fear that Beijing wants to expand its influence there.