A number of Republicans are thrashing Hollywood over the “Barbie” movie which shows a map ceding control of the South China Sea to Beijing, accusing Tinsel Town of being “in the pocket of communist China” as the movie is banned in Vietnam over its overtly political message.

(Video Credit: Reuters)

“While it may just be a Barbie map in a Barbie world, the fact that a cartoonish, crayon-scribbled map seems to go out of its way to depict [China’s] unlawful territorial claims illustrates the pressure that Hollywood is under to please CCP censors,” Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.), who is also the chairman of the House select committee on China, told Fox News Digital in an interview.

Gallagher is demanding that Warner Bros. comment on the controversy to make it clear “that the map was not intended to endorse any territorial claims and was, in fact, the work of a formerly plastic anthropomorphic doll.”

The movie stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. The PG-13 flick now finds itself in the center of a heated geopolitical dispute, vying for control of a board piece that could very well be key in the next world war.

Vietnam was not amused and announced that the Warner Bros. film would be banned within its borders over the inclusion of a map that purportedly supports China’s claim to vast parts of the South China Sea. Officials in the Philippines are prepping to follow their lead over the contested territory.

(Video Credit: Fox News)

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) is actively calling out Warner Bros. over bending the knee to the communist Chinese, pointing out Hollywood’s blatant “hypocrisy” for pandering to China’s vast audience while ignoring its troubling human rights record and the national security concerns of the United States.

“This is yet another disgraceful example of Hollywood being in the pocket of communist China. Not only does it undermine our national security, but exposes the film industry’s blatant hypocrisy on social justice and human rights,” Waltz told Fox News Digital in an interview.

At issue is a boundary line on the map which represents China’s claim to a vast section of the South China Sea. The territory is also being claimed by Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, and Taiwan. The map’s inclusion in “Barbie” seemingly shows a troubling obeisance to communist China which the film industry is kowtowing to for its audience more than it is the United States these days.

Those criticizing Hollywood accuse studio executives of ignoring Beijing’s human rights abuses for the sake of selling movies there. Issues such as internment camps housing Muslim Uyghurs in Northwestern China are at play. Prisoners reportedly undergo retraining and indoctrination. They are also reportedly beaten, tortured, raped, and killed, yet Hollywood refuses to acknowledge the atrocities taking place in China.

The makers of “Barbie” would not have injected a weird Chinese political icon on their own initiative. They’d only have done it if the CCP told them they had to as a condition of being allowed to release in China & possibly other compensation.

It’s not the 1st movie = pattern. pic.twitter.com/AHoj6HFxHu

— dekachin (@dekach1n) July 3, 2023

Curious about why Vietnam decided to ban Barbie movie? This is the reason! Why did Warner Bros draw a dashed line on the map of Asia? The answer, once again, points towards the same motive: appeasing China. pic.twitter.com/j8pRBczJki

— Duan Dang (@duandang) July 4, 2023

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who serves with Gallagher on the China committee, also charged studio executives with “carrying water” for China’s horrendous human rights violations.

“We defeated the Soviet Union with Coke, Levi’s, and James Dean. We need soft power superiority just as much as we need military superiority to win the new Cold War with China, and that’s impossible with Hollywood working alongside the Chinese Communist Party,” Banks asserted. “Movie executives who carry water for the murderous communist regime are endangering our national security and must face consequences.”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) also tore into the “Barbie” movie’s inclusion of the pro-China map, calling it wrong on a legal and a moral level.

“Hollywood and the left are, once again, more concerned with selling films in communist China than standing up to the regime’s egregious human rights abuses,” Blackburn declared, according to Fox News. “The ‘Barbie’ movie’s depiction of a map endorsing Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea is legally and morally wrong and must be taken seriously.”

Leftist Hollywood’s new ‘Barbie’ movie shows a map that supports Communist China’s territorial claims to the South China Sea.

Looks like ‘Barbie’ is bending to Beijing to make a quick buck.

— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) July 5, 2023

An international tribunal at The Hague ruled that China’s claims to vast portions of the South China Sea had no legal merit in 2016. Beijing has ignored that ruling and claims the territory as theirs, threatening anyone who contests it with military repercussions.

When asked about the controversy during a press conference on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning dismissed Vietnam’s anger over the movie.

“China’s position on the South China Sea issue is clear and consistent,” the official proclaimed, adding that Vietnam “should not link the South China Sea issue with normal cultural exchange.”

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) retweeted American Foreign Policy Council fellow Michael Sobolik’s attack on the movie that accused Hollywood of “bend[ing] the knee to the genocidal CCP regime to make a buck.”

“I guess ‘Barbie’ is made in China…” Cruz snarked.

I guess Barbie is made in China…. https://t.co/CDB1IzZcvm

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 3, 2023

Even TIME is pointing out the obvious and they are not exactly conservative.

“It’s not just the big screen that’s under scrutiny. In 2021, officials in the Philippines ordered Netflix to take down select episodes of Australian spy drama Pine Gap due to scenes containing the nine-dash line, while Vietnam demanded the entire series be removed from the streamer,” TIME reported.

“The repeated instances of the same issue raise questions about Hollywood’s relationship with China, which commands a 1.4 billion-person market. China has been critical to the global box office success of many contemporary films, and studios have been known to try to appease Beijing’s own stringent censors in an effort to not be shut out,” the media outlet added.

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