Toy bother: Vietnam pulls Child Three dolls over South China Sea map

This picture taken on March 18, 2025 exhibits a Child Three doll, with a marking on its cheek that has been claimed to resemble China’s so-called nine-dash line within the disputed South China Sea, in Hanoi. Agence France-Presse

HANOI — Seething worldwide tensions over the South China Sea have struck an unlikely sufferer in Vietnam: in style youngsters’s dolls pulled from retailers over a facial mark supposedly resembling Beijing’s claims within the flashpoint waterway.

Small and fluffy, with giant eyes and rabbit ears, Chinese language-made “Child Three dolls” grew to become a must have amongst Vietnamese children and Technology Z earlier this yr and had been flying off cabinets throughout the nation.

That was till a web based backlash started over the “City rabbit V2” mannequin of the doll — and a marking on its cheek that was mentioned to resemble China’s so-called “nine-dash line”.

READ: Vietnam bans ‘Barbie’ film over South China Sea map

Beijing has lengthy used the road to justify its claims over a lot of the resource-rich South China Sea, typically to the displeasure of Vietnam, which additionally claims components of the waterway.

In response to the net outcry, the trade and commerce ministry ordered an inspection of toys supposedly displaying the nine-dash line, which it warned had been “affecting nationwide safety and territorial sovereignty”.

Distributors in Hanoi advised AFP that a lot of the offending dolls had been pulled from cabinets, however their once-booming enterprise has been shattered, with gross sales of all fashions vastly down.

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Le, who declined to provide her full title, mentioned she used to often promote 100 Child Three dolls a day for as much as $20 every, however her gross sales had dwindled to nearly nothing, with only a few now flogged at decreased charges.

“Nearly all youngsters began to boycott (the dolls) as a result of they noticed it as a nationalistic difficulty, considering that purchasing Child Three was unpatriotic,” she mentioned.

“I’ve invested a lot cash into this… it seems like such a waste,” she added.

First ‘Barbie’, now this

In response to information cited by state media from YouNet ECI, an e-commerce information evaluation platform, the common promoting value of Child Three on Shopee and TikTok Store plummeted by half within the first 10 weeks of 2025.

Vu Tu, 19, advised AFP that the toys had been “cute and lovable” however the “nine-dash line scandal” had put him off.

“For my part, toys with the nine-dash line have an effect on Vietnam’s sovereignty and I don’t help them,” he mentioned.

The controversy comes as the web site of Chagee — a Chinese language milk tea model attributable to open its first retailer in Vietnam — was flooded with offended feedback and threats of a boycott final week over a nine-dash line map featured on its web site.

In 2023, “Barbie”, the fantasy comedy movie directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was banned from cinemas attributable to scenes that includes the nine-dash line.

And in 2018, Vietnam lower a scene from the romantic comedy “Loopy Wealthy Asians” that featured a designer bag with a map of the world displaying the disputed South China Sea islands beneath Beijing’s management.

The South China Sea is house to helpful oil and gasoline deposits and delivery lanes, and several other of China’s neighbours have voiced concern that Beijing is looking for to develop its attain.