The Canadian contestant of an international beauty pageant claims she has been denied entry to China for her public position against human rights abuses in the country.
Anastasia Lin, 25, is an outspoken critic of Chinese religious policy and a follower of Falun Gong, a spiritual and meditative practice outlawed by China’s ruling Communist Party in 1999.
The China-born, Canada-raised beauty queen and actress said she was unable to board her connecting flight from Hong Kong after a Chinese official told her by telephone that she would not be granted a visa upon arrival.
She said: “If they start to censor beauty pageants – how pathetic is that?”
Miss Lin was crowned Miss World Canada in May, and was due to attend the Miss World 2015 pageant in Sanya, China, in December.
In July this year, she was invited to testify before the US Congress, addressing the topic of religious persecution in China. Miss Lin went on to speak to the media on the behalf of Falun Gong and other persecuted groups in her home country.
She said that although she has not received an invitation letter from the organisers, she decided to travel there anyway in hopes she would obtain a visa upon arrival.
She wrote in the Washington Post that shortly after her win, Chinese security agents began threatening her father, who still resides in China.
Miss Lin said: “No doubt fearing for his livelihood and business, my father asked me to stop advocating for human rights. He told me that if I did not stop, we would have to go our separate ways.”
She told reporters in Hong Kong: “The Chinese government has barred me from the competition for political reasons. They are trying to punish me for my beliefs and prevent me from speaking out about human rights issues.”
Additional reporting by AP
