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Comment by NhanH | Hacker News Reader

I am Vietnamese, some context followed.

The map looks indeed ridiculous. And I don't know if the movie was trying to appeal to China, or whether it was actually some misguided sarcasm, but the whole dashed-line isn't just some small controversy. It is a big deal, if not the deal for the whole area. Just last year, Uncharted (another AAA movie I believed) was also banned by both Vietnam and Philippines.

At this point, if your movie is banned due to this issue, I don't think it was accidental anymore. This is the third hundred-million dollars movie that was banned for this reason just in the past few years.

I have no opinion on whether movie should try to avoid the issue itself, but I do think it's justifiable and non-surprising (ie. it's good) that the government bans the movie. Geopolitics is both hard and weird, and being consistent is good.

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> I don't know if the movie was trying to appeal to China, or whether it was actually some misguided sarcasm

...or we could apply Hanlon's razor ("Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"). One way or the other, I imagine a poor graphics artist at Mattel Films (or whatever company was responsible for that map) is in very hot water right now...

Malicious people know about the Hanlon's razor and ready to use it as an excuse if they get caught.

"The White House said on Monday that recent encounters between U.S. and Chinese forces in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea reflect a growing aggressiveness by Beijing's military that raises the risk of an error in which somebody gets hurt."

https://www.reuters.com/world/china-russia-launch-joint-air-...

That dotted line is not just a claim, it's where Chinese gunships will patrol and where Chinese bombers do exercise flights. I am actually surprised that the US government is so happy to tolerate large US companies completely undermining their own geopolitical position just to increase profits, like with Blizzard.

"The public's response, which included a boycott and a letter from United States Congress representatives to Activision Blizzard, prompted Blizzard to reduce the punishment, but not to eliminate it."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitzchung_controversy

I believe what all those movies and the Blizzard incident show is that the dream of large profits from China appears to be extremely successful at influencing US companies to help with China's agenda. And the US government appears to be not too successful at preventing that. Also, there is some history w.r.t. that line in movies and on merchandise:

"In pursuit of this goal, China uses any means it can to promote the visibility of the nine-dash line, displaying it on passports, maps, exported globes, movies, books, online games, clothing, tourist leaflets, booklets, television shows, and more. A case in point—in October 2019, a nine-dash map was visible in “Abominable,” an animated family movie jointly produced by China-based Pearl Studio and America’s DreamWorks Animation. In 2018, a group of Chinese tourists wearing T-shirts with a nine-dash line drawing arrived in Vietnam."

https://amti.csis.org/science-journals-a-new-frontline-in-th...

That means in my opinion, this is mostly the CCP showing off their political clout. "Look we can make them include our line!"

"I am actually surprised that the US government is so happy to tolerate large US companies completely undermining their own geopolitical position just to increase profits, like with Blizzard."

They tolerate it because it doesn't affect the politics of the situation, and because the 1st amendment guarantees freedom of speech, so any action to try and stop them would be struck down by the courts.

>I am actually surprised that the US government is so happy to tolerate large US companies completely undermining their own geopolitical position just to increase profits

Well that's because until Pompeo, US had no formal position on sovereignty claims - US historic position was neutrality and now just whatever is anti PRC. It takes time for US to manufacture consent and decouple / "derisk" markets until companies get the hint or are forced to.

> I am actually surprised that the US government is so happy to tolerate large US companies completely undermining their own geopolitical position just to increase profits

If this surprises you, I don’t think you’ve considered who the ruling class of capitalist society is, and whose wishes the government, therefore, naturally embodies, and what that implies its actual interests are.

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