You may have heard that the upcoming Barbie flick has been banned in Vietnam over a map that includes the nine-dash line. You may also be wondering what that means. This is where I, a Barbie who is a self-appointed maritime law expert, comes in.
I say “self-appointed” because I am not, in fact, an expert on the situation, and I merely wanted to make a little joke. I also have no legal training, but considering my sister is a lawyer and I have dated one thousand men who have been admitted to the legal profession, I’d like to think I have some qualifications by association.
So without further ado, here’s a quick explainer on why Barbie crossed the line by depicting the nine-dash line.
What is the nine-dash line?
The South China Sea is of significant economic and strategic importance to Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.
There are heaps of untapped oil and natural gas reserves to snatch up, and loads of fishes swimming around, so surrounding countries understandably want a piece of the pie.
But China has claimed almost all of the 3.3 million square kilometres area, citing “historical rights”. This is where the nine-dash line comes in.
China first drew the nine-dash line — also known as the U-shaped line — in 1947, as a way to assert its supposed territorial rights.
Donald Rothwell, a Professor of International Law at Australian National University, said the nine-dash line has been depicted in myriad official and unofficial Chinese maps since then.
“The line extends off the coast of China’s Hainan Island, and runs close to the coast of Vietnam, deep into the South China Sea, enclosing the Spratly Islands,” he said, per The Conversation.
“North of Borneo, near the coasts of Malaysia and Brunei, the line turns and runs to the west of the Philippines and ends just to the south of Taiwan.”
this barbie does not recognize the nine-dash line and neither should you
— lucifer morning-sturridge 🥀 (@deliriiuumm) July 3, 2023
According to a report from the Los Angeles Times, the area contained within the nine-dash line encompasses more than 80 per cent of the South China Sea. It also covers sections of Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone, and overlaps those of the Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei, per ABC News.
The area also includes the Paracel and Spratly Islands — archipelagos which China and Vietnam have fought over for decades, thus ownership remains v. hotly contested.
In 2016, a United Nations Law of the Sea Convention Tribunal ruled that China’s nine-dash line is invalid. However, the Chinese government basically told The Hague to shove it up its ass, and has wholly rejected the ruling.
What did Vietnam say about banning Barbie?
According to Vietnam’s state-owned newspaper Tuổi Trẻ, Barbie was set to hit the big screen on July 21.
But Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Cinema Department has barred the movie.
“The United States’ live-action feature film ‘Barbie’ is banned from screening in Vietnam for featuring a map depicting the illicit ‘nine-dash line’ that China uses to illegally claim its sovereignty over most of the East Vietnam Sea,” Tuổi Trẻ reported.
Where does the nine-dash line show up in Barbie?
Greta Gerwig accidentally waded into a v. contentious territorial dispute when she showed Barbie (Margot Robbie) having an existential crisis.
Our blonde heroine started freaking the fuck out when her high-heeled feet went flat and the concept of death flittered into her little plastic noggin. Barbie turned to Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) for advice, who advised her to go to “the real world”.
Cue the map of said “real world”, which looks as if it was scribbled in crayon by a literal child.
Will other countries ban Barbie?
After Vietnam confirmed it would block Barbie, the Philippines is now deliberating whether it will follow suit, Variety reported on Wednesday.
“If the invalidated nine-dash dash line was indeed depicted in the movie ‘Barbie,’ then it is incumbent upon the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) to ban the same as it denigrates Philippine sovereignty,” Philippines Senator Francis Tolentino said, as quoted by the publication.
The MTRCB confirmed on Tuesday that it was reviewing the film’s classification.
Filipino Senator Risa Hontiveros has also spoken out about Barbie‘s depiction of the nine-dash line.
“The movie is fiction, and so is the nine-dash line,” she said in the most slay statement ever. Love her.
Thus concludes our explainer on why Barbie, a plastic doll, knows what both the South China Sea and the nine-dash line are. I never thought I’d write a story about the topic, but here we are.
