Beauty Remains In The Eye Of The Beholder As China Prevents Canada’s Miss World From Traveling To Finals

This week, China has once again shown the world that there is nothing quite so ugly as its ongoing struggle to bar basic rights and freedoms to its people.  The authoritarian government’s effort took a particularly bizarre turn when it reportedly stopped Canada’s China-born Miss World, Anastasia Lin, 25,  from boarding a flight to the beauty pageant finals in China.  Lin is a member of the repressed Falun Gong movement and just testified in Congress on Chinese repression in July.

Lin, a stunning actress, was crowned Miss World Canada in May, but was unable to obtain a visa to get to the southern Chinese resort island of Hainan for the contest finals in Sanya.

The Chinese were clearly not happy with the testimony by Lin who said she wanted to “speak for those in China that are beaten, burned and electrocuted for holding to their beliefs.”

The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa doubled down with a statement on saying that “China Welcomes all lawful activities organized in China … including the Miss World Pageant. But China does not allow any persona non grata to come to China.”   Of course, China competes to host international events like this and insists that its authoritarian politics and policies will not interfere with these events.  It appears however that China has a new category of “gorgeous but non grata” personas.