Miss World contestant denied entry to China

Anastasia Lin is an outspoken critic of Chinese religious policy.

Miss World Canada Anastasia Lin poses for photo at the departure hall of Hong Kong Airport in Hong Kong, China on November 26.Tyrone Siu/Reuters

HONG KONG // Canada’s outspoken Miss World contestant said she was barred on Thursday from entering China to take part in this year’s pageant in the southern island province of Hainan.

Chinese-born Anastasia Lin 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 on arrival.

Ms Lin is an outspoken critic of Chinese religious policy and a follower of the Falun Gong meditation practice, which was outlawed by China’s ruling Communist Party in 1999.

“If they start to censor beauty pageants — how pathetic is that?” Ms Lin said.

In a pre-departure statement, Ms Lin said denying her entry would mean China was trying to prevent her from speaking out about human rights issues.

Ms Lin, who moved to Canada from China when she was 13, told a US congressional hearing in July that tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been killed so their organs could be harvested and sold for transplants. The 25-year-old actress also plays an imprisoned Falun Gong practitioner in an upcoming Canadian movie, “The Bleeding Edge.”

Ms Lin said that after she won the Canadian title, Chinese security agents visited her father who still lives in China in an apparent attempt to intimidate her into silence. Although she hadn’t received an invitation letter from organisers, and therefore was unable to obtain a Chinese visa, she said she decided to travel to China anyway in hopes of obtaining a visa on arrival.

“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,” Ms Lin said in her prepared statement.

* Associated Press