Netflix Vietnam removes Chinese series featuring illegal nine-dash line map

Netflix Vietnam has removed “Flight to You,” a Chinese romantic drama series about relationships in an aviation company, citing that it features images of China’s illegal nine-dash line map that violates the maritime sovereignty of Vietnam, a Southeast Asian country.

Reportedly, a representative from Netflix said, “Due to some details in the episodes that are prohibited by Vietnamese law, Netflix has removed the series ‘Flight to You’ from the platform in Vietnam.”

Vi Kien Thanh, the director of the Vietnam Cinema Department, said that the department has assigned personnel to detect films with violations but is facing problems because of the large amount of content on cyberspace.

On Sunday, the Vietnam Cinema Department sent a notice to Netflix and FPT Play to remove the “Flight to You” series. The Department found maps containing the illegal nine-dash line in nine episodes of the series.

The People’s Republic of China has used the nine-dash line, also referred to as the eleven-dash line, to illegally claim extensive swaths of the South China Sea, known as the East Sea in Vietnam. However, the claim by China has been rejected and condemned globally.

The Vietnam Cinema Department said that the “Flight to You” Chinese series violates Vietnam’s maritime sovereignty. The department alleged that the series contains inappropriate content. 

On Sunday, a representative of FPT Play said that “Flight to You” had been removed from its application. Over the past few years, Vietnam banned various international movies containing images of the nine-dash line. 

Earlier this month, Vietnam banned the movie “Barbie” because of an image of the illegal nine-dash line map, a set of line segments on various maps that indicate the claims of China and the Republic of China in the South China Sea.

Last year in March, Vietnam banned the film “Uncharted” because of showing the illegal nine-dash line map.