Vietnam and the Philippines have often banned TV series and movies due to depictions of the South China Sea.
The Barbie movie, which will premiere in Finland next week, has caused outrage in Vietnam and the Philippines. The reason is the drawing map shown in the movie.
Vietnam has banned the screening of the entire film. According to Vietnam, the map shown in the film shows the so-called nine-line border. It’s about the alignment used by China on maps to justify its territorial claims in the South China Sea. The line is a dotted line in the shape of the letter U.
The map has also caused irritation in the Philippines, which also has territorial claims in the South China Sea. However, the authorities deciding on the screening of the film are not banning its screening.
According to the Philippine authorities, the “cartoonish” map does not show the nine-line border. However, the censor warned that it would not even hesitate to ban films for showing the nine-line limit.
In the case of the Barbie movie, the authorities have asked the film studio to blur that point from the map.
The issue was reported by, for example, a Filipino Daily Tribune and the British Broadcasting Corporation BBC.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines also commented on the matter on Wednesday. According to it, the film’s alleged nine-line border is nothing more than an “imaginary route on an imaginary world map”.
Movie studio Warner Bros. defended the map last week, describing it as a “childish crayon drawing,” which was not meant to be a statement of any kind.
Several movies and series banned
In addition to China, Vietnam and the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei have competing territorial claims in the South China Sea. In recent years, for example, China has built defense forces bases on artificial islands in the area to defend its claims. The roots of the territorial dispute go back to the beginning of the 20th century.
Vietnam and the Philippines have often banned the showing of TV series and movies because of depictions related to the South China Sea, says the British newspaper Guardian.
China itself is quite sensitive when it comes to different maps. Illustrative example this is a t-shirt from the clothing company Gap with a map of China. In 2018, the company ended up apologizing to China for the incorrect map. Taiwan, Tibet and islands in the South China Sea were missing from the map on the front of the T-shirt. The companies withdrew the products from the Chinese market and destroyed them.