Chinese-Canadian Miss World, Falun Gong & PRC Persecution

"Dem commies are evil!" Miss World - Canada Anastasia Lin with Chris Smith [R-NJ].

The Chinese Communist Party has long since banned the Falun Gong--which initially started as a movement doing stretching exercises but then committed the mortal sin of moving into politics--from the mainland. Outside China, the Falun Gong [AKA Falun Dafa] has outposts nearly everywhere you'll find the Chinese diaspora as well as an active press service, The Epoch Times, which is perhaps the most stridently anti-Communist Party media outlet there is. Like any other potential "threat" to single-party rule, most notably Catholicism, the nominally atheist CCP has suppressed the Falun Gong as much as possible. By now you're probably thinking, "What does this have to do with IPE"? Well, read on.

The reigning 2015 Miss World - Canada is none other than Anastasia Lin, a Falun Gong follower [!] who is outspoken about China's human rights abuses [!!] and has testified before the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China regarding this very matter [!!!] Before Marco Rubio and the rest, she had this to say:

When I was crowned Miss World Canada, my father was so proud of me. He received hundreds of congratulatory messages. But within a couple days, my father’s tone changed. He told me nervously that I must stop my advocacy for human rights in China, or else he would have no choice but to sever contact with me. I understand my father was visited by Chinese security agents, who forced him to apply pressure on me in this way. Over the past several years, I have taken on roles in several independent film and television programs that depict human rights abuses in China. My job requires me to be intimately familiar with the stories of those who have suffered unspeakable horrors, including a number of Falun Gong practitioners who were imprisoned and tortured for their beliefs.

You see, unfortunately for the beautiful Ms. Lin, the 2015 Miss World competition on December 19 is going to be held in, er, mainland China. Not exactly pleased with her coming to back to the PRC having tried to sully its reputation at every opportunity, there is a brewing diplomatic row between China and Canada over her attendance at the said beauty pageant. These events are actually big-money events, so it's a political battle set to run till year end:

Canada's China-born Miss World contestant said on Tuesday her visa to travel to the beauty pageant at a Chinese resort has been delayed and her father has been harassed by Chinese officials because she has spoken out about human rights abuses in the communist country. Anastasia Lin, an actress crowned Miss World Canada in May, said her determination to speak out about Chinese abuse of human rights may have cost her a chance to attend the Dec. 19 contest final in Sanya, China.

Lin testified at a U.S. Congressional hearing on religious persecution in China in July. In her testimony, she said she wanted to "speak for those in China that are beaten, burned and electrocuted for holding to their beliefs," according to the full text of her statement on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China's website. "I was interested in human rights way before I even thought of beauty pageants," Lin, 25, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Lin said finalists from other countries have received their invitation from the Chinese host venue that allows them to apply for a visa to attend the finals, but she has received no letter and believes China is trying to block her from the event. Reuters was not able to independently confirm whether other finalists had received their invitation letters. "I don't think this is an administrative issue. It is not. I think this is a matter of principle," said Lin, who also is a practitioner of Falun Gong, a religious group that says it is repressed in China.

My personal belief is that while Falun Gong has indeed been singled out by the CCP, the abuses the Falun Gong claims are beyond what the PRC normally does. If Falun Gong has a sworn enemy, the Communist Party is definitely it, so there is every incentive for creative interpretation here. This story will definitely be one to watch since, without Canadian pressure, I am 100% convinced that she would not be allowed to represent Canada at the year-end pageant.

At the rate these stories are coming out, I'll probably be able to turn this site into the "IPE of Beauty Pageants Zone" in no time ;-)