Miss World Canada denied China entry at Hong Kong airport after human rights advocacy
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 26 November, 2015, 7:28pm
UPDATED : Friday, 27 November, 2015, 2:28am
Elizabeth Cheung
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Miss World Canada Anastasia Lin was stopped from reaching China’s Miss World pageant 'over rights comments'. Photo: Nora Tam
Miss World Canada, Anastasia Lin has been stopped from entering mainland China to compete in the Miss World pageant after she criticised the country sense of insecurity in authority.
Lin talked to the local media on Thursday evening after she was rejected to go onboard to a plane to Sanya in Hainan Province, where the Miss World beauty contest is being held.
“What I feel upset particularly is this big country can’t even take in a 25-year-old girl. This shows that the country does not have a sense of security. Don’t they have any confidence in their authority?” Lin said from Chek Lap Kok Airport on Thursday night.
Anastasia Lin. Banned in China. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Lin arrived Hong Kong from Toronto at 6am on Thursday on a Cathay Pacific flight, as she planned to take another connecting flight with Dragonair to Sanya. She said that she continued the journey to
Sanya without a Chinese visa because of the special visa policy in Hainan province.
“I’m a Canadian citizen. By Chinese law, I am eligible to receive a landing visa upon arrival in Sanya. Because Hainan is a special place, it’s a tourist place, so Hainan has a different visa policy,” said Lin.
She told airline staff when she was first stopped from boarding the plane, and had to wait for an answer from the Hainan province government on further steps regarding her visa.
She waited from 10am to around 3.30pm, until she was given a phone interview with an officer from the Hainan authorities.
She said the officer asked her several questions, including where she was born, date of birth, when she moved to Canada and her Chinese name.
“After I said my Chinese name is Lin Yefan, he went like ‘oh, okay...you are not eligible to receive a landing visa’,” said Lin.
She said the man told her “there was no reason given. You are just not eligible”.
Dragonair staff presented her a slip stating that “you are not eligible to board the plane”, without issuing an official copy to her. Lin claimed she took a photo of that paper, but she declined to show that photo upon request from the Post.
“I don’t see the point of denying me a visa...I don’t see any threat that would possibly pose to the security of a country,” said Lin.
Lin spoke at the departure hall of Hong Kong Airport. Photo: Reuters“
I am a rightful representative of Canada. If my eligibility is dependent on the hosting country’s political discrimination, what is that? Does that mean that in the future all Olympic athletes have to self-censor from now on to 2022 in order to get into China for the Olympic games? What an unhealthy climate it would be?” asked Lin.
While the opening ceremony of the beauty contest was on November 23, Lin has been waiting for an invitation letter from the Sanya government in order to let her apply for a visa to China.
Stated not a member of any group but just a “practitioner of Falun Gong”, Lin was aware of the sensitivity of her identity.
“It’s very sensitive. That’s part of the reason why the Chinese government is so afraid of me,” said Lin, referring to her relationship with the belief.
She said she did not know what to do next nor how long she is going to stay in Hong Kong and she needed a night to think about it.
Caylan Ford said actress Anastasia Lin was prevented Thursday from boarding her connecting flight from Hong Kong. Authorities gave no reason.
Li is an outspoken critic of Chinese religious policy and a follower of the Falun Gong meditation sect, which was outlawed by China's ruling Communist Party as an “evil cult” in 1999.
She was not immediately available for comment. In a pre-departure statement she said denying her entry would mean China was trying to prevent her from speaking out about human rights issues.
