Global Courant
EXCLUSIVE: Several GOP lawmakers are accusing Hollywood of once again agreeing with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over the inclusion in the “Barbie” movie of a map that appears to endorse Beijing’s dominance in the South China Sea.
While it may just be a Barbie map in a Barbie world, the fact that a cartoonish, chalk-scribbled map seems to go out of its way to represent (China’s) illegitimate territorial claims illustrates the pressure Hollywood is under to appease the CCP censors,” Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., Chairman of the House select committee on China, to Fox News Digital.
The upcoming summer blockbuster starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling finds itself in the middle of one of the most heated geopolitical disputes today.
Vietnamese officials announced that the Warner Bros. film would be banned within its borders due to the inclusion of a map allegedly supporting China’s claim to large parts of the South China Sea. Officials in the Philippines have indicated they can follow suit.
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GOP lawmakers accuse Hollywood of bowing to Chinese Communist Party amid ‘Barbie’ movie controversy (Getty Images and Warner Bros.)
Gallagher called Warner Bros. to speak out on the controversy to make it clear “that the map was not intended to endorse territorial claims and was in fact the work of a previously plastic anthropomorphic puppet.”
Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., accused the US film industry of blatant “hypocrisy” for pandering to China’s general public while ignoring its disturbing human rights record.
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“This is yet another disgraceful example of Hollywood being pocketed by Communist China. It not only undermines our national security, but also exposes the movie industry’s blatant hypocrisy in social justice and human rights,” Waltz told Fox News Digital.
The boundary line on the map represents China’s claim to a vast swath of the South China Sea, which is also fought over by Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan. The card’s inclusion in “Barbie” underscores the growing controversy over Hollywood’s reliance on China, which has rivaled the US for its largest market in recent years.
The summer blockbuster starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling is embroiled in a geopolitical dispute. (Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
Film industry critics have accused studio executives of ignoring Beijing’s human rights violations in order to sell films there.
A GOP lawmaker who sits on the China Committee with Gallagher, Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., similarly accused studio heads of “carrying water” for China’s various transgressions.
“We defeated the Soviet Union with Coke, Levi’s and James Dean. We need soft power superiority as well as military superiority to win the new Cold War with China, and that is impossible with Hollywood collaborating with the Chinese Communist Party” said Banks. said. “Movie executives who carry water for the murderous communist regime endanger our national security and must face the consequences.”
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Senator Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., called the inclusion of the pro-China card in the “Barbie” movie legally and morally wrong.
Under President Xi Jinping, China has been accused of numerous human rights violations and suppression of freedom of expression (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, pool, file)
An international tribunal in The Hague said in 2016 that China’s claims to large parts of the South China Sea had no legal value, but Beijing rejected the ruling at the time.
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“Hollywood and the left, again, are more concerned with selling movies in communist China than with cracking down on the regime’s blatant human rights abuses,” said Blackburn. “The depiction in the ‘Barbie’ movie of a map endorsing Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea is legally and morally incorrect and should be taken seriously.”
Elizabeth Elkind is a political reporter for Fox News Digital.
