HANOI: Seething international tensions over the South China Sea have struck an unlikely victim in Vietnam: popular children’s dolls pulled from shops over a facial mark supposedly resembling Beijing’s claims in the flashpoint waterway.

Small and fluffy, with large eyes and rabbit ears, Chinese-made “Baby Three dolls” became a must-have among Vietn­amese kids and Generation Z earlier this year and had been flying off shelves across the country.

That was until an online backlash began over the “Town rabbit V2” model of the doll — and a marking on its cheek that was said to resemble China’s “nine-dash line”. Beijing has long used the line to justify its claims over most of the resource-rich South China Sea, often to the displeasure of Vietnam, which also claims parts of the waterway.

In response to the online outcry, the industry and trade ministry ordered an inspection of toys supposedly displaying the nine-dash line, which it warned were “affecting national security and territorial sovereignty”.

Vendors in Hanoi said that most of the offending dolls had been pulled from shelves, but their once-booming business has been shattered, with sales of all models vastly down.

Le said she used to regularly sell 100 Baby Three dolls a day for up to $20

each, but her sales had dwindled to almost nothing, with just a few now flogged at reduced rates.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2025