Jauhn Etienne Villaruel

This photo taken on March 18, 2025 shows a Baby Three doll, with a marking on its cheek that has been claimed to resemble China's so-called nine-dash line in the disputed South China Sea, in Hanoi. Seething international tensions over the South China Sea have struck an unlikely victim in Vietnam: popular children's dolls pulled from shops over a facial mark supposedly resembling Beijing's claims in the flashpoint waterway. Photo by Nhac Nguyen/AFP

Article (news)

Doll

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1742377888452Screen Shot 2025-03-19 at 5.51.03 PM.png" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">This photo taken on March 18, 2025 shows a Baby Three doll, with a marking on its cheek that has been claimed to resemble China&#x27;s so-called nine-dash line in the disputed South China Sea, in Hanoi.  <em>Nhac Nguyen, AFP</em></span></span></span></div><p>HANOI, Vietnam — Seething international tensions over the South China Sea have struck an unlikely victim in Vietnam: popular children&#x27;s dolls pulled from shops over a facial mark supposedly resembling Beijing&#x27;s claims in the flashpoint waterway.</p><p>Small and fluffy, with large eyes and rabbit ears, Chinese-made &quot;Baby Three dolls&quot; became a must-have among Vietnamese kids and Generation Z earlier this year and had been flying off shelves across the country.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/2024/10/14/labubu-toy-collection-craze-sweeps-ph-celebrities-join-trend-1632">Labubu toy collection craze sweeps PH; celebrities join trend</a></div><p>That was until an online backlash began over the &quot;Town rabbit V2&quot; model of the doll -- and a marking on its cheek that was said to resemble China&#x27;s so-called &quot;nine-dash line&quot;.</p><p>Beijing has long used the line to justify its claims over most of the resource-rich South China Sea, often to the displeasure of Vietnam, which also claims parts of the waterway.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/09/01/23/marcos-says-ph-will-respond-on-chinas-10-dash-line">China&#x27;s 10-dash line? Marcos Jr says Philippines will &#x27;respond&#x27;</a></div><p>In response to the online outcry, the industry and trade ministry ordered an inspection of toys supposedly displaying the nine-dash line, which it warned were &quot;affecting national security and territorial sovereignty&quot;.</p><p>Vendors in Hanoi told AFP that most of the offending dolls had been pulled from shelves, but their once-booming business has been shattered, with sales of all models vastly down.</p><p>Le, who declined to give her full name, said she used to regularly sell 100 Baby Three dolls a day for up to $20 each, but her sales had dwindled to almost nothing, with just a few now flogged at reduced rates.</p><p>&quot;Almost all children started to boycott (the dolls) because they saw it as a nationalistic issue, thinking that buying Baby Three was unpatriotic,&quot; she said.</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;ve invested so much money into this... it feels like such a waste,&quot; she added.</p><div><strong>FIRST &#x27;BARBIE&#x27;, NOW THIS</strong></div><p>According to data cited by state media from YouNet ECI, an e-commerce data analysis platform, the average selling price of Baby Three on Shopee and TikTok Shop plummeted by half in the first 10 weeks of 2025.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/07/09/23/warner-bros-speaks-up-on-controversial-map-in-barbie-movie">Warner Bros. speaks up on controversial map in &#x27;Barbie&#x27; movie</a></div><p>Vu Tu, 19, told AFP that the toys were &quot;cute and adorable&quot; but the &quot;nine-dash line scandal&quot; had put him off.</p><p>&quot;In my opinion, toys with the nine-dash line affect Vietnam&#x27;s sovereignty and I don&#x27;t support them,&quot; he said.</p><p>The controversy comes as the website of Chagee -- a Chinese milk tea brand due to open its first store in Vietnam -- was flooded with angry comments and threats of a boycott last week over a nine-dash line map featured on its website.</p><p>In 2023, &quot;Barbie&quot;, the fantasy comedy film directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was banned from cinemas due to scenes featuring the nine-dash line.</p><p>And in 2018, Vietnam cut a scene from the romantic comedy &quot;Crazy Rich Asians&quot; that featured a designer bag with a map of the world showing the disputed South China Sea islands under Beijing&#x27;s control.</p><p>The South China Sea is home to valuable oil and gas deposits and shipping lanes, and several of China&#x27;s neighbors have voiced concern that Beijing is seeking to expand its reach.</p><div><strong>— By Lam Nguyen, Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OIF4Y2p02tg?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>Seething international tensions over the South China Sea have struck an unlikely victim in Vietnam: popular children's dolls pulled from shops over a facial mark supposedly resembling Beijing's claims in the flashpoint waterway.</p>

Seething international tensions over the South China Sea have struck an unlikely victim in Vietnam: popular children's dolls pulled from shops over a facial mark supposedly resembling Beijing's claims in the flashpoint waterway.

Toy trouble: Vietnam pulls dolls over South China Sea map

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Toy trouble: Vietnam pulls dolls over South China Sea map

Agence France-Presse

Published Mar 19, 2025 06:01 PM PHT

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