Foreign Policy Guru Ian Bremmer Says ‘Barbie’ Map Was About Appealing to ‘Chinese Censors’

Eurasia Group president Ian Bremmer said that a crude world map included in the upcoming Barbie movie was drawn to appeal to ‘Chinese censors’ on Fox News Thursday morning .

A rough map included in the background of one scene shows a line comprised of eight dashes jutting out of Asia and into sea. Critics have characterized it as a thinly-veiled attempt to pay homage to the China’s nine-dash line in the South China Sea, which depicts Chinese territorial claims on islands and waters that are disputed by much of Southeast Asia, including Taiwan and Vietnam.

Bremmer concurred with those critics.

“It’s done in crayon, it’s a couple of dots, eight dots, not nine, and it’s coming off of Asia, and of course Warner Brothers is saying ‘Oh no no, it’s mean this is just like kids, we weren’t doing anything,'” said Bremmer before explaining the studio’s actual intention:

What Warner Brothers is doing, what Barbie was doing, maybe it was really Ken, was saying ‘We have a hard time getting through the censors. Maybe if we put this eight dash line in the Chinese censors will say it’s fine and they’ll promote us while no one in Southeast Asia, the Vietnamese, the rest, they’ll recognize that this isn’t really a thing. We can make everyone happy.’ Didn’t work.

After observing that Vietnam had banned the film and the Philippines was demanding that the map be blurred, Bremmer noted that Pixar’s 2019 film Abominable was banned in several countries for its own depiction of the nine-dash line and turning the conversation back to Warner Brothers:

They’re to have it both ways! How many people want to have it both ways? The NBA wants to have it both ways, Elon wants to have it both ways, Hollywood wants it both ways. The fact is, biggest box office in the world is China. But if you don’t play by the censor rules, you aren’t going in. And what are we gonna do? We’re gonna beat on them back in the United States.

Watch above via Fox News.

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