HANOI: Vietnam is investigating the website of Blackpink’s tour organiser, ahead of the K-Pop superstars’ concert in Hanoi, after fans complained that it shows a map of the South China Sea with disputed boundaries.
The controversy follows Hanoi’s decision to ban the highly anticipated Hollywood movie Barbie over a scene allegedly featuring the “nine-dash line” used in Chinese maps to illustrate Beijing’s claims over vast areas of the South China Sea, including swathes of what Vietnam considers its continental shelf.
Vietnam’s culture ministry said late on Wednesday it had ordered an inspection of the website “to verify the suspicion that the company organising the Blackpink music night promoted the cow-tongue line”, using the Vietnamese phrase to describe the U-shaped line.
The ministry did not immediately respond to questions about the possible outcome of the inspection. It was unclear when it would announce its findings.
The Chinese organiser iME Entertainment and the South Korean agency YG Entertainment, which manages Blackpink, had no immediate comment.
The organiser’s website was inaccessible on Thursday but a cached version seen by Reuters and last updated on July 4, shows a vague nine-dash line that encompasses nearly the whole South China Sea.
Vietnam and China have long had overlapping territorial claims to a potentially energy-rich stretch in the waterway. Hanoi has repeatedly accused Chinese vessels of violating Vietnamese sovereignty.
Blackpink, whose members include Thailand’s Lisa Manoban, are a cornerstone of South Korea’s multi-billion dollar entertainment industry. But Vietnamese fans who noticed the nine-dash line on the organiser’s website were not happy.
“Bought two tickets for me and my date. Then saw the cow-tongue, and quit. I am (a) patriot,” Tu Anh Xinh, a Blackpink fan wrote on Facebook.
The world-famous K-pop group is due to perform in Vietnam for the first time ever on July 29 and 30, having been granted a government licence that requested the organiser to comply with the government’s regulations on performing activities.
