The highly anticipated Barbie movie, set for release in just over two weeks’ time, has been banned in Vietnam.
The movie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, features a map showing Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea that Vietnam disputes.
It’s unclear what scene shows what’s known as the "nine-dash line" typically seen on China’s maps, but a Vietnamese official has labelled it "offensive".
Many of China's neighbours, including Vietnam, have overlapping territorial claims in the sea. According to Reuters, the nine-dash line is used on Chinese maps to show its claims in the area, including a large area Vietnam considers part of its continental shelf.
"We do not grant license for the American movie Barbie to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line,” the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper reported Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema, as saying.
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