Ted Cruz shreds ‘Barbie’ movie for for ‘Chinese propaganda’

Come on Barbie, let’s go Communist Party?

Texas Senator Ted Cruz unleashed boxed-up anger at the upcoming “Barbie” movie for including what his office called Chinese communist propaganda in the anticipated summer blockbuster, out July 21.

The Margot Robbie-starring film came under fire for its pro-China, on-screen representation of islands in the South China Sea that are disputed — and have been the subject of two separate military campaigns in 1974 and 1988 — between both Vietnam and China.

In 2016, a United Nations court ruled that China’s claim to the regions had no basis in international law.

Vietnam has banned the film nationwide because it visualizes the “nine-dash line” — a long-used geographical indicator that these territories, including the Paracel and Spratly Islands, are under Chinese control.

Cruz doubled down on criticism of the movie’s pro-China choice by tweeting, “I guess Barbie is made in China….” on Monday.

“China wants to control what Americans see, hear, and ultimately think, and they leverage their massive film markets to coerce American companies into pushing [Chinese Communist Party] propaganda — just like the way the ‘Barbie’ film seems to have done with the map,” a representative for Cruz told the Daily Mail.

For many years, Western nations like the United Kingdom, France and Australia have also contested China’s claims to the area and the nation’s assertive policies in the region.

“[China] has built artificial islands in the South China Sea, harassed foreign naval and military aircraft passing through the region, intimidated Vietnamese and other foreign fishermen, asserted rights to explore and exploit maritime oil and gas reserves, and continued to publish maps depicting the nine-dash line claim,” Donald Rothwell, an international law professor at Australian National University, wrote in an article for The Conversation.

Other nations, including Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia, all lay claims to territories within the energy-rich corridor.

“This is why any legitimacy given to the nine-dash line, even in Hollywood movies, is so sensitive,” Rothwell added.

Tom Holland’s 2022 film “Uncharted” was among a bevy of recent films barred from Vietnam for showing the nine-dash line.

Although Barbie was a major retail flop in China about a decade ago, the nation is still a major manufacturer of the doll sold worldwide, according to Esquire Philippines.