Vietnam targets toys featuring South China Sea map used by Beijing

Name: History, money and military: why the South China Sea is so important to Beijing
Uploaded: 2025-03-13T07:15:12.000Z
Duration: 9 min 23 s
Description: History, money and military: why the South China Sea is so important to Beijing

Investigation launched after a version of Baby Three toys with a design similar to a map of the waterway were being widely sold

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A Vietnamese island near the South China Sea. Photo: AFP

Bloomberg

Published: 3:15pm, 13 Mar 2025

Vietnam is stepping up inspections of particular children’s toys over concerns that imagery on the model’s face resembles a map China uses to stake competing territorial claims in the South China Sea.

The investigation was launched after local media reported that a version of Baby Three toys, many of which are made in China, featured a design similar to a map of the disputed South China Sea and were being widely sold, according to a statement on the Agency for Domestic Market Surveillance and Development’s website – a unit of the trade ministry.

Vietnam aggressively monitors all references to the demarcation known as the nine-dash line, banning the movie Barbie from its cinemas due to a scene that shows the map. The nation also asked Snapchat to remove an image of China’s disputed South China Sea map on its mobile app.

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History, money and military: why the South China Sea is so important to Beijing

“The propagation and use of products and prints containing the nine-dash line in Vietnam violate Vietnamese regulations and are not accepted,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said at a Hanoi press conference in 2023.

China claims more than 80 per cent of the South China Sea and backs this up with a 1947 map that shows vague dashes – the nine-dash line – looping down to a point about 1,800km (1,118 miles) south of Hainan Island.

Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan claim parts of the same maritime area, and have sparred with Beijing over where the boundaries fall.