Following a complaint from broadcast authorities in Vietnam regarding the display of a map depicting Chinese claims in the South China Sea, Netflix Inc has deleted Australian spy drama “Pine Gap” from its services in the Southeast Asian country. The map illustrates China’s unilaterally announced “nine-dash line” and is exhibited in the context of maritime claims in the region. It appears briefly on the screens of a control room at a spy base in two episodes of the six-part show.
Given China’s clout in Hollywood, anything and everything that comes out of Beverly Hills must be vetted by the Communist Party of China. Even all content on Netflix is supposed to toe the line of the CCP. And thus repeated violations of Vietnam’s sovereignty are a sign of the same.
The Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information declared on its website that Netflix’s infringement “angered and hurt the feelings of the entire people of Vietnam.” “This is the third time in a row in the last 12 months that Netflix has been found to distribute movies and TV shows containing content which violate Vietnam’s sovereignty,” said the statement, which was dated July 1.
The “nine-dash line” is a U-shaped feature on Chinese maps that depicts the country’s disputed claims to enormous swaths of the resource-rich South China Sea, including substantial swaths of what Vietnam considers their continental shelf, where oil concessions have been granted.
In recent years, Chinese and Vietnamese ships have been involved in months-long standoffs in the contested waters. Netflix stated that the show had been taken down in Vietnam, but that it was still available elsewhere on the service.
“Following a written legal demand from the Vietnamese regulator, we have removed the licensed series, Pine Gap, from Netflix in Vietnam, to comply with local law,” a Netflix spokesperson said.
In October 2019, Vietnam banned DreamWorks’ animated feature “Abominable” from theatres because to a scene depicting the “nine-dash line” on a comparable map. The other two episodes that the Vietnamese broadcasting regulator had identified as difficulties with Netflix were “Put Your Head on My Shoulder,” a 2019 Chinese rom-com, and “Madam Secretary,” a US political drama. On Friday, “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” was still available on Netflix, but “Madam Secretary” was not.
Content providers and producers alike do not hesitate to toe the Chinese line wherever possible. Content stalwarts Disney and Netflix among others in Hollywood bend over backwards to protect the image of the Chinese Communist Party. China is a big market and thus OTT platforms ensure that their content follows the guideline as prescribed in the CCP rulebook.
Especially big Hollywood producers such as Disney have taken great care not to offend China’s Communist regime in order to maintain its business interests. Previously, the Disney-produced picture “Mulan” sparked outrage since it was shot in Xinjiang, a Chinese province where the Uyghur minority is being “re-educated” in concentration camps. To defuse tensions and make their CCP bosses happy while also filling Disney’s coffers, the company expressed gratitude to the Xinjiang administration for allowing them to shoot in the region.
This is the third time Vietnam has protested to Netflix against content which inflicts harm on its sovereignty. But repeated occurrences of the same kind display the intrusive control and influence the CCP has on Netflix and Hollywood.