‘It’s fiction:’ Senator Risa Hontiveros speaks up on ‘Barbie’ movie and China’s nine-dash line

MANILA, Philippines – Following Vietnam’s ban on the Barbie movie over its depiction of China’s disputed nine-dash line, Senator Risa Hontiveros has spoken up, reiterating that, like the film, the nine-dash line is fictional.

“The movie is fiction, and so is the nine-dash line,” Hontiveros said in a July 4 statement.

While she did not call for cinemas to ban the film as Vietnam has done, Hontiveros said that “at the minimum, our cinemas should include an explicit disclaimer that the nine-dash line is a figment of China’s imagination.”

Vietnam state media reported on July 3 that the country has banned the hotly-anticipated film from domestic distribution over a scene showing the nine-dash line on a map.

The u-shaped line is included on Chinese maps to illustrate what it claims as its territory in the South China Sea, encroaching on the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of five ASEAN coastal states, including the Philippines.

The line has since been invalidated in an international arbitration ruling by a court in The Hague in 2016.

Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling and directed by Greta Gerwig, Barbie is set to open in Philippine theaters on July 19. – Rappler.com