Republicans have taken issue with a world map — void of any accuracy — in the background of a shot in the upcoming "Barbie" movie, blaming the liberal media for pushing Chinese Communist Party propaganda.
"China wants to control what Americans see, hear, and ultimately think," a Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's spokesperson said, according to The Hill. "And they leverage their massive film markets to coerce American companies into pushing Chinese Communist Party propaganda — just like the way the Barbie film seems to have done with the map."
Other Republicans joining in the attack included Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.
"Hollywood and the Left are more concerned with selling films in Communist China than standing up to the regime's human rights abuses," Blackburn wrote in a tweet about the movie, which had also been purportedly banned in Vietnam over the "nine-dash line."
"The 'Barbie' movie's depiction of a map endorsing Beijing's claims to the South China Sea," she noted, "is legally and morally wrong and must be taken seriously."
But according to a spokesperson from Warner Bros., the map had no political motive.
"The map in Barbie Land," the spokesperson tells Variety, "is a childlike crayon drawing. 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."
According to a July 2016 press release (PDF) from The Hague, the international criminal court ruled in arbitration, in a case brought by the Philippines, that China's territorial claims in the South China Sea were unfounded. Nonetheless, China has ignored the ruling, claiming the waters marked by a nine-dash line as its territory.
Related Stories:
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.