Don't try to silence a beauty queen, Miss World Canada issues statement via Facebook

MISS WORLD CANADA, Anastasia Lin, used her Facebook page to release her statement after being informed that she would not be invited to compete in the international pageant for women.

She traveled to Hong Kong with hopes that she could obtain a flight to Sanya, China where the Miss World pageant is being held this week. In Hong Kong, when was told that she would not be allowed to board a flight to Sanya. 

The 25-year old actress was born in China but immigrated to Canada in 2002 where she resides in Toronto. A follower of Falun Gong, a meditative practice that is banned in China, she testified earlier this year in front of the U.S. Congress on China's repressive tactics.

Anastasia Lin is being prevented from representing Canada in the Miss World pageant.

Lin's Facebook post follows:

Dear friends, at 6:00am local time on Nov 26th I arrived in Hong Kong en route to Sanya, China, host city of the 2015 Miss World competition.

Unlike all other Miss World contestants, I did not receive an invitation letter from the Chinese organizers of this event, and so was unable to obtain a visa in advance. I was never given an explanation as to why I did not receive the letter. Under Chinese law, however, Canadian citizens are eligible to obtain a landing visa upon arrival in Sanya, so I decided to try attending anyway.

Unfortunately, I was prevented from boarding the plane from Hong Kong to Sanya. No reason was given for the denial. I will be holding a press conference in Hong Kong tomorrow morning at 10am local time at the Regal Airport Hotel.

The slogan of the Miss World competition is “Beauty with a purpose.” My purpose is to advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves—those who suffer in prisons and labor camps, or whose voices have been stifled by repression and censorship. I also want to give courage to all people living under repressive systems. Many of them have lived in fear for so long that they have forgotten that they can think freely. 

This is a very personal cause for me. When I was a child growing up in China, my job as a student council president involved enforcing ideological purity among my classmates, organizing them to watch Communist propaganda. It was only after I moved to Canada that I discovered what it meant to think freely, to use my own mind, and to live without fear of arbitrary punishment or reprisal.

To me, this is the essence of being Canadian and living in a free society. And it is something I hope that all people will one day be able to experience.

In my case, this path led me to start practicing Falun Gong—a system of meditation and qigong based on the values of truth, compassion, and tolerance. I also learned about the severe persecution that people in China face for following these values. Hundreds of thousands of peaceful and law-abiding people have been imprisoned and tortured, and many have died or disappeared in custody after they refused to renounce their beliefs and swear allegiance to the Communist Party.

It is not limited to Falun Gong. Many others in China and around the world also face persecution for holding true to their convictions. And yet they persist. They refuse to be silenced or submit to fear and coercion. They have the courage to live in accordance with their conscience, no matter the price.

Their courage is a constant source of inspiration to me. It is why I have continued speaking up even after Chinese security agents visited my father and sought to intimidate him. It is why I kept going even after I didn’t receive the invitation letter from the Chinese organizers of the Miss World Final. I owed it to all those who don’t have a voice to at least try.

That is why I tried to go to Sanya. As the Canadian representative to Miss World, I have every right to be there and take my place among the other contestants and share my message.

My denial was unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected. 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 about human rights issues. Many others have had similar experiences: for years, the Chinese government has used the threat of visa denials to punish dissidents or anyone with unapproved views, and to bring academics and journalists to heel.

This is not conduct befitting an aspiring superpower—especially one that hopes to host international competitions such as Miss World and the upcoming Winter Olympics. Silencing beauty queens, censoring journalists, and torturing religious believers is not a sign of strength—it is a sign of profound weakness and insecurity.

If China wishes to be respected by the international community, it should abide by the norms and standards of that community. If it wishes to be strong and prosperous, it should realize that strength comes from diversity, from being able to listen to different ideas. The Chinese people have an ancient civilization with rich intellectual traditions. They are fully capable of discerning right from wrong if given a chance. It is too bad that the Chinese government will not afford them this opportunity.

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In July, Anastasia Lin testifed to the U.S. Congress about religious persecution in China.

In its Sunday editorial, the state-sponsored English language newspaper Global Times was critical of Lin. It accused Anastasia Lin of criticizing the Chinese government to “gain sympathy from the Western public that already holds prejudices against China.”

The 25-year-old beauty queen testified in July at a U.S. congressional hearing on religious persecution in China and is a vocal critic of Beijing’s human-rights abuses. She is reportedly a practitioner of Falun Gong, a Buddhist- and Taoist-inspired Chinese spiritual discipline detested by the communist authorities.

“Lin has to pay a cost for being tangled with hostile forces,” the article said. “She may not know that all performers should avoid being involved in radical political issues.”

The unsigned editorial concluded: “Lin needs to learn to be responsible for her words and deeds.”

Indeed, Lin has not been shy about espousing her views, whether it be testifying before the U.S. Congress, TV interviews, motion pictures or social media. 

Competing in beauty pageants was another venue for her to get her message to the world. When she competed in the Miss World Canada contest for the first time in 2013, notes The Toronto Star, she performed a piano composition dedicated to “those who lost their life for their faith and the millions of people still fighting for their faith today.” She launched her bid for the 2015 crown with a video (below) saying she wished to extend “light and courage to those who still find themselves in the dark.”

Beijing’s communist rulers have no intention of giving Lin an even bigger platform from which to speak out. However, by their actions, they inadvertently gave her the platform and attention that they sought to deny.

Anastasia Lin may not win the coveted Miss World crown, but in many other ways, she has already won.

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