Fact Check: Is 'Barbie' Map Pushing Chinese 'Propaganda'?

Barbie has attracted criticism in unexpected ways even before most fans of the world-famous doll have been able to see her latest outing, which premieres in theaters on July 21.

Margot Robbie stars in the title role and she's joined by Ryan Gosling, who plays Barbie's companion Ken, but one scene featuring a map of the world has not only garnered criticism but has also led the movie to be banned in Vietnam.

Still due to the map in question, Republican Senator Ted Cruz from Texas has accused the movie of pushing Chinese "propaganda" because of its depiction of the disputed nine-dash line in the South China Sea.

Warner Bros, which is distributing Barbie, has denied that the map was intended to make any kind of "statement."

Newsweek has reached out to Warner Bros. and Senator Cruz's office via email for comment.

The Claim

Cruz has accused Barbie of containing Chinese propaganda in a scene depicting a hand-draw world map.

"I'm the dad of two young daughters," Cruz told The Daily Signal. "This is gonna be a big movie, particularly for a lot of young girls."

"There's a scene in Barbie where there is this map of the world and it's drawn, like, with crayon," Cruz went on. "I mean, it's really a very simple cartoon. And so they have this block-ish thing that is called Asia. And then they've drawn what are called the nine dashes, which is—this is Chinese Communist propaganda."

"The Chinese are asserting sovereignty over the entirety of the South China Sea," Cruz said. "And they don't have any right to it under international law but they're trying to take it away from their neighbors there—take away and claim China's in charge of the entire sea and no one else, whether Vietnam or Singapore or other nations in that area."

Video of those remarks was shared to Twitter on Sunday by Ron Filipkowski, an attorney who describes himself as a former Republican.

The Facts

Control of the South China Sea is disputed. Vietnam, The Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and China each have competing claims.

The Chinese government is sensitive about the portrayal of its territorial claims in media and has previously pressured companies to include Taiwan as part of its territory. The island is self-governing but is not recognized as an independent country by the U.S. or most of the world's nations.

A study published by literary and human rights group PEN America in 2020 argued that China's influence on Hollywood studios was a threat to free expression and that movies had been changed as part of an "effort to avoid antagonizing Chinese officials who control whether...films gain access to the booming Chinese market."

The map Cruz referred to was featured in a screenshot from Barbie that included Robbie and went viral in July, leading to Vietnam banning the movie.

The image in question shows a crude map of the world, created with colorful ink or crayon. Barbie stands in front of it and an outline of land can be seen, labeled "Asia." There are eight dashes coming out of "Asia" drawn in the sea.

There is no suggestion that the Chinese government has been involved in designing the map shown in Barbie.

Warner Bros. defended the map in a statement to Reuters.

"The map in Barbie Land is a whimsical, child-like crayon drawing," Warner Bros. said. "The doodles depict Barbie's make-believe journey from Barbie Land to the real world. It was not intended to make any type of statement."

It's not entirely clear what the dashes are meant to represent but Vi Kien Thanh, the head of the Vietnam Cinema Department, confirmed that Barbie was banned due to "the illegal image of the 'cow's tongue line' in the film," according to state media in Vietnam.

The "cow's tongue line" is a Vietnamese phrase for the nine-dash line, i.e. markings used by China to indicate what Beijing considers to be its territorial claims in the South China Sea. China claims ownership over a significant portion of the territory, which is disputed by other nations in the region and not internationally recognized.

Other movies have also been banned in Vietnam for similar reasons, including children's animation movie Abominable and the video game adaptation starring Tom Holland, Uncharted.

The New York Times has previously reported that Vietnam Plus, a state-run Vietnamese newspaper, said that Barbie's alleged inclusion of the nine-dash line "distorts the truth, violates the law in general and violates sovereignty of Vietnamese territory in particular."

The Philippines—which has banned movies in the past because of depictions of the nine-dash line—will not ban Barbie after the country's Movie and Television Review and Classification Board determined that the cartoon map was a "make-believe journey of Barbie from Barbie Land to the 'real world'" which is "integral part of the story." It has requested that the map be blurred.

The board said it had consulted with legal and foreign affairs experts and noted that there were dashes elsewhere on the map drawn in a "child-like manner." (There are indeed other dashes around the map).

The Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia aren't actually visible on the cartoon map.

"This is in stark contrast to the maps found in the banned films Abominable (2019) and Uncharted (2022)," the board said, referring to two movies that were banned in The Philippines.

The Ruling

Senator Cruz's claim that Barbie contains Chinese propaganda needs context. The film's distributor, Warner Bros., has said the controversial map "was not intended to make any type of statement" and described it as "whimsical."

There is significant disagreement about whether the map depicts the disputed nine-dash line and authorities in Vietnam and The Philippines have reached different conclusions about the map.

A Vietnamese state newspaper said the movie "distorts the truth" in comments similar to what Cruz said. The movie is now banned in Vietnam but not in The Philippines.

Vietnamese authorities concluded that the map does depict the nine-dash line but censors in The Philippines did not agree.

Needs Context.

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