Miss Canada Anastasia Lin, a Chinese-born Canadian citizen, has been denied permission to enter China to compete in the Miss World beauty pageant. She said she was unable to board her connecting flight from Hong Kong after a Chinese official told her over the phone that she would not be granted a visa on arrival, Aljazeera America reported.
“I’m in Hong Kong, but the Chinese government has barred me from getting the next flight to Sanya for Miss World #AfraidOfABeautyQueen”, Lin tweeted on Thursday.
Lin posted her ordeal on Facebook, where she writes that she did not even receive an invitation letter from the Chinese organisers of this event, and 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”, she added.
Although no explanation was provided to her for denying visa, Lin said that the Chinese government has barred her from the competition for political reasons. Aljazeera America says that she is an outspoken critic of Chinese religious policy and a follower of the Falun Gong, a meditation practice banned by China’s ruling Communist Party in 1999.
“My denial was unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected”, she said. “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”.
