On 3rd July, Vietnam banned Warner Bros’ upcoming film “Barbie” from domestic distribution as it showed ‘9 dash line’ in a scene that featured a world map. In the scene, the map used by the makers showed the 9-dash line, the same that China uses to claim most parts of the South China Sea.
Vietnam has banned Warner Bros' highly-anticipated film ‘Barbie’ from domestic distribution over a scene featuring a map that shows China's unilaterally claimed territory in the South China Sea, state media reported https://t.co/yqLYLGeVfR pic.twitter.com/hVA82Vyrm4
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 3, 2023
The map appears at the 1-minute mark in the official trailer of the film.
The U-shaped’ 9 dash line’ is used by China to claim vast areas of the South China Sea, including an area that Vietnam considers to be its continental shelf. In this area, Vietnam has been awarded oil concessions. Notably, an international arbitration ruling by a court in The Hague denied China’s claims over the area in 2016. However, China refused to acknowledge the ruling.
China claims around 80% of the South China Sea. To back up the claim, China uses a 1947 map that shows vague dashes looping down to a point about 1,800 KMs from Hainan island. The area that it claims covers parts of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei.
As per the Economist report, the line is partly the result of a cartographic mistake. Interestingly, Chinese officials never showed interest in the South China Sea before the 20th century. In 1933, a committee was formed under the leadership of Chiang Kai-Shek to name the islands in the South China Sea. They copied names from Western maps into Chinese. Later, a private geographer and teacher inspired by nationalistic cartography became the first to draw the infamous 9-dash line. Later, his students were hired by the Chinese government under Kuomintang in 1946. In 1948, the Chinese government, for the first time, asserted the “legitimacy” of the line. Soon after, the Chinese government started to build a story around the line claiming historical rights in the region, saying China was the first to discover the islands in the South China Sea.
Notably, under modern maritime law governed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), coastal countries can claim only 12 nautical miles of territorial sea. They get exclusive rights to drilling, fishing and mining only up to 200 nautical miles.
Vietnam had banned the movies ‘Abominable’ and ‘Uncharted’ earlier
This is not the first time Vietnam has banned a movie over the ‘9 dash line’. In 2019, the government banned DreamWorks’ animated film ‘Abominable’, and in 2022, it banned Sony’s action movie ‘Unchartered’ for the same reason. In 2021, Netflix dropped an Australian spy drama’ Pine Gap’ over the map issue.
Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema that is in charge of licensing and censoring foreign films told the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper, “We do not grant a license for the American movie ‘Barbie’ to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line.”
Barbie is set for release on July 12.
For those who are unaware, China and Vietnam claim that a potentially energy-rich stretch in the South China Sea is their own. Vietnam has accused China of repeatedly violating its sovereignty. Vietnam is not the only country China has border disputes with. India, Bhutan and Nepal have raised concerns over border issues with China. In the case of India, China has raised claims over Arunachal Pradesh and some areas in Ladakh. In 2020, there was a violent clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers in the Galwan Valley of Ladhak, in which India lost 20 soldiers while China lost almost double.
