Netflix has pulled a Chinese drama series from its Vietnam platform after Hanoi objected to an episode featuring a map with contested territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The 27-episode romance drama Shine on Me includes images of the so-called nine-dash line which Vietnam has condemned as “inaccurate” and “infringing upon national sovereignty”.
China uses the line in its maps to demarcate its territorial claims in the South China Sea. Vietnam is one of many countries that object to these claims.
Vietnam’s culture ministry issued a demand for the series to be removed on 3 January and gave Netflix 24 hours to comply.
A BBC check on Tuesday found it could no longer be viewed on Netflix’s Vietnam platform.
The disputed map appears several times in episode 25 of Shine On Me, in a scene about China’s solar power potential.
The show’s main characters attend a lecture where a map of China which shows part of the nine-dash line is projected on an auditorium screen.
Shine On Me is popular within China and other territories, ranking among Netflix’s Top 10 shows in Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam before it was pulled.
Beijing has not officially commented on the ban, although its state-run newspaper Global Times published an article on Tuesday urging Hanoi to “separate cultural exchanges from [the] South China Sea issue”.
In recent years China has increasingly asserted its claims of sovereignty over several land parcels and their adjacent waters in the South China Sea, despite complaints from Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.
Beijing has expanded some islands and built structures on them, and conducted sea patrols which at times have resulted in heated confrontations with the Philippine navy.
China argues that various pieces of evidence, from pottery shards to navigational guides used by Chinese fishermen, back up its claims of historical sovereignty.
In 2016 an international tribunal in The Hague ruled against Chinese claims in the South China Sea, but Beijing did not recognise the judgement.
The dispute between Beijing and Hanoi particularly centres on the Paracel and Spratly island chains, which the nine-dash line loops around on Chinese maps.
China says its right to the area goes back centuries to when these island chains were regarded as integral parts of the Chinese nation.
Vietnam hotly disputes this, saying China had never claimed sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea before the 1940s.
Hanoi says it has actively ruled over the Paracels and the Spratlys archipelagoes since the 17th Century and that it has the documents to prove it.
There are many issues that could provoke public uproar in Vietnam – including what citizens consider insulting depictions of the Vietnam war – but the nine-dash line is one that consistently draws authorities’ attention.
On most other issues, the Vietnamese government actively works to contain anti-China sentiment, but criticism affirming Hanoi’s claims in the South China Sea is one of very few forms of protest it deems acceptable.
Between 2019 and 2024, Vietnam filed eight written takedown requests with Netflix, according to the streaming platform’s reports.
In 2023, Vietnam had also ordered Netflix to remove another Chinese drama, Flight to You, over a similar map.
Chinese dramas are not the only productions to be banned by Vietnam for featuring the nine-dash line.
Authorities banned Warner Bros’ Hollywood blockbuster Barbie in 2023, and DreamWorks’ animated film Abominable in 2016, for similar reasons.
Additional reporting by Sen Nguyen in Bangkok
