Canada's Miss World contestant urges businesses, international organizations to press China on human rights

Anastasia Lin, the 2015 Miss World Canada, urged businesses and global organizations, such as Miss World and the International Olympic Committee, to pressure China to improve human rights in the country, in a National Press Club luncheon speech on Dec. 18.

Lin spoke the day before she was to compete for the Miss World crown. But she did not appear in the contest because China denied her entry to the country for the pageant after she spoke out about China's human rights practices.

“If these organizations speak up and say 'if you don't allow our participants in, we will just go,' the Chinese government would change their mind,” said Lin, who appeared at the Club in a tiara and dress with Miss World Canada 2015 sash.

The newly elected Canadian government also should take a stand on human rights in China, Lin said.

“I believe it is important for the government to give comfort to overseas Chinese to be themselves,” Lin said.

Lin’s advocacy includes testifying to Congress about China’s practice of compulsory organ harvesting from prisoners for profit and repression of Falun Gong practitioners.

Lin wrote in a June Washington Post oped that her father, who lives in China, had been threatened by the government in an attempt to get her to abandon her advocacy.

During the Club luncheon, she said that earlier in the week, a Canadian dressmaker was pressured by the Chinese Consulate in Toronto to deny their service to her.

“This is the government of the most populous nation in the world, yet they still find time to intimidate a dressmaker for a beauty queen halfway around the world,” Lin said.

Lin did not receive a formal invitation to the contest in Sanya, China, despite earning the Miss World Canada crown in May.

When attempting to travel to to Sanya via Hong Kong on Nov. 26 to attend the Miss World Pageant, Lin learned that she was barred from entering China. An official had given her a phone to contact a customs agent.

“The official in Sanya said I couldn’t enter, but he would not give me a reason,” she said.

Lin later learned from the media quoting the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa that she had been listed as a persona non grata.

Lin immigrated to Canada from Hunan, China, as a teenager. She cites her mother as an influence for her tenacity.

“My mother encouraged me to challenge ideas imposed on me and to use my own mind,” she said.

An actress, Lin is also appearing in the upcoming Canadian film "The Bleeding Edge" by Leon Lee, which was inspired by the organ harvesting practice and interviews with Chinese dissidents.