‘Barbie’ Movie Dragged into Diplomatic Mega-Spat

The Greta Gerwig-directed comedy, which is set to release on July 21, is just the latest movie to run afoul of Vietnamese censors for showing the nine-dash line. In 2009, China sparked a major international dispute by submitting a map including the nine-dash line to the U.N. as part of a dispute with Vietnam. China has rejected the ruling and its coast guard vessels continue to patrol in the outer reaches of its nine-dash line some 700 nautical miles from the Chinese coastline. Competing claims in the South China Sea still remain among other countries including Taiwan, Malaysia, and Brunei. It’s not yet clear how the offending nine-dash line map made its way into the Barbie movie.