Miss World Canada refused entry to Miss World pageant in China
Anastasia Lin, the outspoken Miss World Canada, has not received an invitation letter from the Chinese government allowing her to take part in the competition due to her human rights advocacy.
According to the BBC, the 25-year-old Chinese-born actress would have required the letter allowing her to apply for a visa. The deadline to receive the letter fell yesterday. Without it she will have no way to enter China and make her way to Sanya where the pageant is being held.
Other contestants are reported to have received their letters at the end of October. As the opening ceremony is due to take place on November 23, Lin is all but certain not to be able to make it.
"Miss World's official line is that if I don't make it to the opening ceremony, I probably can't enter this year. If I'm a few days late it might be OK, but the window is closing. At this point I don't want to give up," Lin told the BBC.
The 25-year-old Lin was born and raised in Hunan, but now has Canadian citizenship. She moved to the country at the age of 13 with her mother, going on to graduate from the University of Toronto and building a career as a model, actress and activist.
Lin says her interest in human rights began when she heard the stories of other Chinese citizens who said they were being targeted by the government.She has since performed in films about the abuse of Falun Gong members and spoken about the subject to a US Congressional committee in July.
Earlier this year, Lin penned an op-ed in The Washington Post claiming that her father, who still lives in China, had started receiving threats from Chinese security agents complaining about his daughter's human rights advocacy.
Despite the threats, Lin vowed to carry on her work. In the article she wrote:
Many people have asked me why I have continued speaking out after my father was threatened. The answer is simple: If I allow myself to be intimidated, then I am complicit in continued human rights abuses. If I and others who share my concerns allow ourselves to be silenced, the Communist Party will continue abusing its people with impunity.
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