Global Courant
The new Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling is about to be released soon.
But according to state-run Vietnam Tuoi Tre newspaper the film’s release has been blocked. So said the head of the Department of Cinema, a government agency responsible for licensing and censoring foreign films
We do not license the release of the American film ‘Barbie’ in Vietnam because it contains the offensive image of the nine-dash line
Vietnam’s response to the Barbie film’s portrayal of the South China Sea shows how sensitive these issues are in Southeast Asia, and especially in Vietnam.
What is the nine-dash line?
The South China Sea has a long history of contention.
China and Vietnam engaged in military clashes over the Paracel and Spratly Islands in the South China Sea in 1974 and 1988.
Those disputes have been over land, but more recently the focus has shifted to claims about the continental shelf (the area of the seabed extending at least 200 nautical miles from the coast) and the economic zones (the area at least 200 nautical miles from the coast).
Since the late 1940s, China has been promoting the so-called nine-dash line in the South China Sea. The line, also known as the “U-shaped line” or “cow’s tongue”, consists of nine dashes.
As depicted on various official and unofficial Chinese maps, the line extends off the coast of the Chinese island of Hainan and runs close to the coast of Vietnam, deep into the South China Sea and enclosing the Spratly Islands.
North of Borneo, near the coasts of Malaysia and Brunei, the line turns and heads west into the Philippines, ending just south of Taiwan.
The line has long been the subject of speculation as to exactly what it purports to encompass. Is it a Chinese territorial claim? Is it a Chinese claim to a maritime space? Does it extend to sovereignty over the whole area or just resources?
China has never been very explicit about exactly what the claim entails, but it has been persistent in trying to push the claim forward.
This is especially true since Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have put forward their own claims to parts of the South China Sea that overlap the nine-dash line.
Who disputes the line?
A joint from 2009 Malaysia/Vietnam submission to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf highlighted competing claims over the continental shelf in the South China Sea, which sparked the current controversy.
China issued a formal diplomatic response to the UN, claiming:
China has unquestionable sovereignty over the islands of the South China Sea and adjacent waters, and enjoys unquestionable sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the relevant waters, seabed and subsoil (see attached map).
China attached a copy of the nine-dash map to its formal diplomatic protest against Malaysia/Vietnam’s entry, adding
The above position is consistently held by the Chinese government and is widely known by the international community.
However, it turned out that this was not a widely known or shared position of the international community. Since then, the commission has become a de facto legal battleground for differing views on the status of the nine-dash line.
In addition to China’s continued stance on the legitimacy of the nine-dash line, countries such as Australia, France, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam have refuted China’s claims.
But the commission is not a court and is made up of scientists who review continental shelf claims.
It fell to the Philippines, as the other country with potential claims to the region, to separately challenge the legality of China’s nine-dash claim under the law of the sea. In 2016, a Tribunal of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ruled unanimously that China’s claim had no basis in international law.
That statement was clear and convincing, and was immediately rejected by China. While the Philippines definitively won the legal argument that the nine-dash line had no basis in modern international law or the law of the sea, China refused to respect the outcome of that case and continues to assert its rights in the South China Sea.
China does this in several ways. It has constructed artificial islands in the South China Sea, bothered foreign naval and military aircraft passing through the region intimidated Vietnamese and other foreign fishermen, claimed rights to explore and exploit marine oil and gas reserves, and continued to publish maps with the nine-dash claim.
This is why any legitimacy given to the nine-dash line, even in Hollywood movies, is so touchy.
Source: Facebook
Why are maps so controversial?
Maps reflect a crucial national characteristic: territory.
They define the outer limits of territorial claims. Children are familiarized with their home country with maps. Maps have historically been depicted on stamps, buildings, and more recently government websites.
Maps now depict a country digitally and this has become controversial, as highlighted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. university students challenge their professors when maps showing disputed lands are shown.
Maps have meaning and touch on national sensibilities.
Vietnam’s reaction to Hollywood’s portrayal of the Chinese nine-dash line is understandable. It shows fierce resistance to any legitimacy that China’s persistent nine-dash claims in the South China Sea can generate, even in the fictional world of Barbie.
Donald Rothwell is professor of international law, Australian National University
This article has been republished from The conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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