Miss World contestant puts pageant chances on the line to testify to US Congress about China's human rights

The cause of human rights in China is attracting glamour to the US Congress. Last week, Richard Gere. This week, a contender for Miss World.

Actress Anastasia Lin, who made human rights part of her winning bid in May to become Canada’s contestant to this edition of the global beauty pageant, testified Thursday on religious persecution in China. The 25-year old Lin, who was born in China, plays an imprisoned practitioner of the outlawed Falun Gong sect in an upcoming Canadian movie, The Bleeding Edge.

“Through my encounters with persecution victims and their family members, I have found that these practitioners of Falun Gong — who have been marginalised, defamed and vilified in China for the past 16 years — are noble people,” Lin told the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. She said practitioners are imprisoned and tortured for their beliefs.

China’s authoritarian government outlawed Falun Gong as a threat to social stability in 1999.

Lin’s commentary may not bode well for her chances of making it to Miss World. The December pageant is being held in Sanya, China.

Lin, who moved to Canada when she was 13, said her father in China has already come under pressure from authorities there. He was proud of her becoming Miss World Canada but soon urged her to stop human rights advocacy or he would have no choice but to sever contact with her. Lin said she no longer gets to speak with her father.