Barbie's 9 Dash Line and China and Ted Cruz

You may have heard of the "9 Dash Line". The name itself comes from a very very old Chinese Map that shows China controlling the South China Sea.

This area has been contentious as the World Court (or the equivalent for the ocean) has ruled that the area is international waters, not Chinese Waters. China is pretty touchy about it. Vietnam is also very touchy about it, and has banned the Barbie movie because they claim it shows the 9 dashed line and the South China Seas being part of China. Ted Cruz (and most of the Fox talking Jack-in-the-boxes) have proclaimed this is American movies caving the Chinese censors.

It is stupid. Seriously. This is the "map" they complain about. It is show for less than 10 seconds. For Barbie, it is a map to the "real world" and designed to show Barbie how little she knows about the world. For Ted Cruz it is the map a traitor makes. Compare the actual 9 dash map with the Barbie one and you see some minor differences. Like Barbie's map is a cartoon caricature done by a 3 year old with the route to the real world.

 

I kind of understand why Vietnam might get touchy, even if the line actually reaches into Russia (Asia is incorrectly orientated). 

But I Ted Cruz' faux outrage is stupid. And to see it come from a man that attended Princeton and Harvard Law is crazy. I think we ought to start bitching about Harvard.