The film's star, Margo Rubio (Photo: GettyImages)
Vietnam banned the Barbie movie from its territory after a map showing China's unilateral claims in the South China Sea, the communist country's official media reported.
The map in question includes a nine-dash line that Beijing uses to show its claims to the resource-rich strategic waterway, including in areas Hanoi considers its own and where it has sold oil exploration concessions.
Vietnam has already banned several films in recent years for the same reason. China's claims are not recognized by the international community and were rejected by a court in The Hague in 2016, but Beijing refuses to recognize that ruling and Hanoi accuses its vessels of violating its sovereignty.
In 2019, the Vietnamese government banned the animated film "Magic of a Monster" and last year the film "Uncharted" for a similar reason. In 2021, Netflix removed the Australian drama series Pine Gap from its services in Vietnam.
Barbie, starring Margo Rubio and Ryan Gosling, was scheduled to be released in Vietnam on July 21, coinciding with its U.S. premiere. However, Vi Kane Thana, head of the Film Department — a government body responsible for screening foreign films — was quoted by the state-run newspaper Toy Terra as saying, "We will not license the American film 'Barbie' in Vietnam because it contains the offensive image of the nine-dash line."
Warner, the film's distributor, did not comment on Hanoi's decision.
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