Chinese TV series featuring map with nine-dash line ordered off Netflix

The department sent a notice on Sunday to Netflix and FPT Play.

It said it had reviewed all 39 episodes on Netflix, and found a map containing the illegal nine-dash line appearing in episodes 18, 19, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, and 38 besides being especially evident in episode 30.

Episode 18 features a character even saying "one day this map will go to many places in the world," it said.

The "nine-dash line" has been used by China to illegally claim vast swathes of the South China Sea, known in Vietnam as the East Sea, but the claim has been internationally rejected and condemned.

In the case of FPT, the department said while it has blurred the map out, the series is filled with inappropriate content that violates Vietnam’s maritime sovereignty making it unsuitable for distribution in the country.

It has ordered the removal within 24 hours from Monday and sought a report on compliance by Wednesday.

On Sunday an FPT Play spokesperson said the series has been removed from all related sites, and the company is awaiting further instructions from authorities.

"Flight to You," premiered in China last year, is a romantic drama about young people working in aviation.

Many foreign movies containing the nine-dash line have been blocked in Vietnam.

On July 3, the film "Barbie" was banned.

In March 2022 action-adventure film "Uncharted" was banned.

In 2019 the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism also fined cinema chain CGV VND170 million ($7,193) for screening "Abominable," an animated film showing the illegal map, for 10 days besides removing it from theaters.

Some officials in the Cinema Department were reprimanded for their negligence.

In 2021 Netflix removed six episodes of Pine Gap, an Australian spy series after authorities discovered it contained falsehoods about Vietnam’s maritime sovereignty.