The punishment, imposed by Ho Chi Minh City's Department of Information and Communications, came days after Lynette Moey Yu Lin, a Malaysian of Chinese origin, admitted sharing the document on China’s successful Covid-19 campaign with nine department heads late last month. These managers were supposed to subsequently forward it to lower ranking staff.

The demarcation line, claiming 90 percent of the 3.5-million-square-kilometer East Sea, known internationally as the South China Sea, has met strong opposition from the international community.

After protests from several Vietnamese employees, Bayer retracted the document.

Bayer AG is a German multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company. In Vietnam, the company has been present for over 25 years, employing about 700 people.

Last year, Vietnam also fined several companies for their dissemination of the nine-dash line.

Saigontourist, a leading Vietnamese travel company, was fined VND50 million ($2,200) for using brochures depicting China’s illegal claims.

CGV, Vietnam's largest cinema chain, was fined VND170 million ($7,400) for licensing the film "Abominable" that includes the nine-dash demarcation.

Vietnam has repeatedly affirmed it holds legal and historical evidence to assert its sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) islands in the East Sea, as well as its legal rights over its waters in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).