Of all things - How do Barbie and Blackpink figure in a dangerous territorial dispute?

The Barbie movie and a website of a company promoting Blackpink were accused of displaying a Chinese map of territory in the South China Sea. - PHOTOS: REUTERS, YG ENTERTAINMENT

HANOI: Of all the things that could inflame tensions in a region that could someday be a theatre of war between superpowers, the movie Barbie was not an obvious catalyst. Yet here we are.

The authorities in Vietnam this week banned the upcoming Greta Gerwig film over a map in Barbie that they said showed a Chinese map of territory in the South China Sea, where the two neighbours have competing claims.