Vietnam Bans Barbie over ‘Illegal’ China Map. It’s No Child’s Play.

Maritime disputes are no child’s play. That’s why Vietnam has banned the new Barbie movie over a map. The Nine-Dash Line, which has adorned Chinese Communist Party maps since approximately 1947, encompasses 80 percent of the South China Sea. China claims all maritime and territorial areas in the South China Sea that fall within what is known in Vietnam as the “Cow’s Tongue Line.” However, China’s maritime claims within the Nine-Dash Line are illegal—a fact recognized by the United States and most of the international community. Warner Brothers has waded into a high-stakes geopolitical dispute—and Barbie’s world just got very real.

The Nine-Dash Line contradicts the maritime boundaries established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). UNCLOS, which reflects customary international law established by states over centuries, has been signed by 168 of the world’s 193 countries, including China. The United States is not a signatory, but follows UNCLOS as a matter of customary international law. China claims the area within the Nine-Dash Line as a matter of “historic rights,” and has built artificial islands in an attempt to cement its position. The Nine-Dash Line overlaps with Vietnam’s UNCLOS claims, as well as those of the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. The map of the Nine-Dash Line itself is an illegal image in Vietnam. In 2016, an international tribunal invalidated the Nine-Dash Line, found China’s artificial island-building program to be illegal, and held that China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea could not exceed those established by UNCLOS. Most countries in the world supported the decision. The Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia have all relied on the decision since in proceedings in the United Nations and in diplomacy. The Nine-Dash Line remains a daily point of tension between China and the Philippines. Last year, Vietnam and Indonesia resolved a longstanding boundary dispute under UNCLOS, in accordance with the decision. Recently, the Nine-Dash Line has been a regular point of tension between Vietnam and China, who have been sparring over China’s illegal incursions into gas fields in a disputed area of Vietnam’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

It is unclear why the Nine-Dash Line is part of Barbie’s world. As of this writing, Warner Brothers was closed for the July 4 Holiday and had yet to comment. However, Hollywood has been well known to make concessions to the Chinese government in order to gain access to its lucrative market. Isaac Stone Fish thoroughly documents Hollywood’s appeasement of the Chinese Communist Party in his book “America Second: How America’s Elites are Making China Stronger.” Stone Fish documents numerous episodes of Hollywood changing movies to appease the Chinese government, including deleting a (prescient?) line in “World War Z” in which characters debate whether a zombie pandemic began in China, and a scene in “Pixels” where aliens blast through the Great Wall. Moviemakers have repeatedly deleted references to Tibet. However, most of the incidents documented by Stone Fish are those of appeasement and self-censorship: moviemakers deleting scenes or choosing not to portray plot points in ways that might offend China. Barbie’s map represents something else entirely: a promotion of the Chinese Communist Party’s worldview, a rejection of the legally justified maritime and territorial claims of several U.S. partners and allies, and a map that contradicts boundaries recognized by the United States.

This is not the first time that moviemakers have gotten in trouble for showing the Nine-Dash Line. In 2019, Vietnam canceled showings of the DreamWorks film “Abominable” due to a scene depicting the Nine-Dash Line. Politicians in the Philippines called for a boycott of all DreamWorks releases in protest, and Malaysia ordered the scene removed. Political tensions over the Nine-Dash line have only risen since 2019, heightening the likelihood that other countries will follow Vietnam’s lead. It is unclear how much money Warner Brothers stands to lose from having Barbie banned in Vietnam. However, if other countries follow suit and ban the movie—or raise a media firestorm—political blowback and profit loss could be significant.

All businesses must engage in some diplomacy if they wish to continue to do business with both the United States and China. However, a difference exists between changing a scene to appease the Chinese Communist Party and depicting the world as Beijing wishes to see it—an affront to China’s neighbors, U.S. partners and allies, U.S. diplomacy, and international law. Barbie’s dream world should not promote an international legal nightmare. The real world will be watching Warner Brothers’ response.