Fox News has bizarrely questioned whether Barbie is being revised as a communist after the character’s upcoming live-action spinoff movie sparked controversy in Southeast Asia.
The hotly anticipated flick has been banned in Vietnam after it included a map depicting China’s disputed claims over the region, known as the ‘nine-dash line.’
Just two weeks ahead the film’s premiere on July 21, Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy turned up the heat over the issue during her ‘pop culture roundup’ segment.
‘Hollywood, facing backlash over its ties to China,’ she said, before questioning: ‘Is Barbie a communist?’
Campos-Duffy also touched on criticisms levied at the feature by Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who slammed the Margot Robbie flick for ‘pushing Chinese propaganda’.
Fox news host Rachel Campos-Duffy slammed Hollywood’s ties to China as she questioned: ‘Is Barbie a communist?’
The Barbie movie is expected to be one of the biggest blockbusters of the summer, with director Greta Gerwig pouring a $100 million budget to a dazzling pink plot.
Gerwig is set for a showdown with rival director Christopher Nolan with his biopic ‘Oppenheimer’ slated to be released on the same date, but her international box-office numbers may be hampered after Barbie was banned in Vietnam.
The issue at the heart of the ban stems from the appearance of a map in the film, which depicts China’s contested claims over the South China Sea.
It has been a topic of contention for decades in the region, with a number of other Southeast Asian nations all making overlapping claims to a collection of islands in the sea.
When news of the map made waves ahead of the film’s release, Vietnamese officials reacted with fury and canceled screenings across the nation in protest.
The head of Vietnam’s Department of Cinema, Vi Kien Thanh, told The Washington Post that the decision was made because of an ‘offensive scene that shows the cow tongue line’ – the Vietnamese name for the ‘nine-dash line’.
Margo Robbie’s ‘Barbie’ is expected to become one of the biggest blockbusters of the summer – but a scandal in the South China Sea threatens to derail its international box-office figures
The nine-dash line is a maritime boundary in the South China Sea drawn up by China, which claims to own the territory inside the boundary
With Barbie’s Asian box office returns in jeopardy, Fox News chimed in on the issue to slam ‘Hollywood’s ties to China.’
‘Is Barbie a communist?’ questioned Campos-Duffy, as she noted Cruz’s furious tirade against the film for ‘pushing Chinese propaganda’.
That led her and her co-host to suggest ‘maybe!’
A spokesperson for Senator Cruz sent a statement to DailyMail.com calling out the film, saying: ‘Senator Cruz has been fighting for years to prevent American companies, especially Hollywood studios, from altering and censoring their content to appease the Chinese Communist Party.
‘China wants to control what Americans see, hear, and ultimately think, and they leverage their massive film markets to coerce American companies into pushing CCP propaganda—just like the way the Barbie film seems to have done with the map. Sen. Cruz deserves credit for reversing these trends.’
The statement also referenced legislation Senator Cruz authored and passed in 2022 preventing government cooperation on ‘films that engage in exactly this kind of censorship.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz slammed the makers of the upcoming Barbie movie for attempting to ‘appease the Chinese Communist Party’ after Vietnam banned the film over scenes with a map showing China ‘s claims to territory in the South China Sea
Beijing has been building military bases on artificial islands within the border for years and also often conducts patrols there in an attempt to impose its territorial claims.
China has long used its so-called nine-dash line to demonstrate its expansive claims to most of the resource-rich sea, often to the displeasure of the Vietnamese, who also claim part of the waterway.
The South China Sea is home to valuable oil and gas deposits and shipping lanes, and several of China’s neighbors have voiced concern that Beijing is seeking to expand its reach.
The boundary is also contested by others, including the Philippines, Taiwan, and Malaysia.
However, the controversy has not angered all politicians in the region, with Filipino Senator Risa Hontiveros slamming the issue.
‘The movie is fiction, and so is the nine-dash line,’ she said.
She stopped short of calling for the film to be banned like it was in Vietnam, instead feeling ‘at the minimum, our cinemas should include an explicit disclaimer the nine-dash line is a figment of China’s imagination.’
Warner Bros., which is producing the film, has not commented on the scandal.
