Vietnam has banned the new Warner Bros. "Barbie" movie over a scene depicting a map that shows a contentious border dispute between Vietnam, China, and other related countries.
Even though the scene was of a childlike drawing of the world, the map shows the "nine-dash line" of China's one-sided claimed territory in the South China Sea, which Vietnam says violates its sovereignty.
Was this purposeful propaganda, or just a movie director that isn't caught up with territory disputes in China?
Either way, this was enough to have the movie banned from commercial screenings in Vietnam, which has a population of 97 million people.
"We do not grant license for the American movie 'Barbie' to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line," according to the state-run news outlet Tuoi Tre which cited Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema.
The dispute is over an energy-rich region ruled part of Vietnam in 2016 by a court in the Hague.
The resolution was supposed to be binding, but China refuses to acknowledge the ruling.
So, we sometimes see communist lovers adding in the "nine dash line" depicting China's asserted territorial rights over parts of the South China Sea, including regions that Vietnam regards as its own.
And China continues to brush it off.
"China's position on the South China Sea issue is clear and consistent," the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said, adding that Vietnam "should not link the South China Sea issue with normal cultural exchange."
99.99% of the time, I am not a fan of censorship - the movie isn't out yet, but we all already know it's woke garbage. But is it worth the ban in a country of over 90 million?
"I'm not sure this map, which you'd miss if you blinked at the one-minute mark in the third trailer, is admissible in the International Court of Justice. It's cartoonishly unrealistic," said Toronto Star columnist Vinay Menon "Where is continental Europe? New Zealand? What do the sailboats represent? Is that a jester's crown atop Iceland?"
They didn't even include Europe, but they DID add in those nine little dashes??? 🤦♀️
