What is the ‘nine-dash line’ and what does it have to do with the Barbie movie?

By Donald Rothwell, Australian National University

The new Barbie film starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling is set for imminent release. But according to Vietnam’s state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper the film’s release has been barred. The head of the Department of Cinema, a government body in charge of licensing and censoring foreign films, said

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

Vietnam’s response to the Barbie movie’s depiction of the South China Sea shows how sensitive these matters are in South East Asia, and especially in Vietnam.

https://twitter.com/CineFiles_/status/1675814919382478851?t=70gLVnKm_Cxq3Qms10DUTA&s=19

What is the nine-dash line?

The South China Sea has a long history of being contested.

China and Vietnam engaged in military clashes over the Paracel and Spratly Islands in the South China Sea in 1974 and 1988.

Those disputes were over land, but more recently the focus has turned to claims over the continental shelf (the area of seabed that extends beyond the coast to at least 200 nautical miles), and the economic zones (the area at least 200 nautical miles from the coast).

Since the late 1940s, China has promoted the so-called nine-dash line in the South China Sea. The line, also known as the “U-shaped line” or “cow’s tongue” comprises nine dashes.

As depicted in various official and unofficial Chinese maps, 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.

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.

https://twitter.com/GIS_Reports/status/768392879538577408?t=awQGNcoLyfcWO6snAF-UqQ&s=19

The line has long been the subject of speculation as to what exactly 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 to resources?

Read Full Story https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-nine-dash-line-and-what-does-it-have-to-do-with-the-barbie-movie-209043