Written by John Lounsbury
Anastasia Lin was born in China in 1990 and lived there for her first 13 years before moving to Canada with her mother. She has been an outspoken critic of her native country regarding human rights for several years since. In 2015 Lin won the title of Miss World Canada. Then she found out she would not be allowed by the Chinese government to attend the Miss World finals to be held on Hainan Island in that country.
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From Wikipedia:
Anastasia Lin (born January 1, 1990) is a Chinese-Canadian actress, model, beauty pageant titleholder and human rights advocate.
Lin won the Miss World Canada title in 2015 and was to represent Canada at Miss World 2015 pageant to be held in China but was refused a visa by Chinese authorities after being declared persona non grata. The news of her rejection from the pageant, and her subsequent attempt to enter China through Hong Kong, caused global media attention for several weeks, leading to a front-page article in The New York Times and op-eds and editorials in major newspapers.[1] Most of the coverage praised what it said was Lin’s bravery for “resistance to tyranny” using the novel form of a beauty pageant, and she was hailed as “an outspoken advocate for freedom of conscience.”[2] Lin represented Canada at Miss World 2016 in Washington, District of Columbia.[3]
Analysts widely suspected the reason for refusal of entry to be due to her advocacy of human rights in China and choice of film roles, and her rejection from the pageant caused widespread reflection on the ability of China to exert its influence far beyond its own borders.[4]
In January 2016, she was listed as one of the “Top 25 Under 25” by MTV Fora.
Lin’s father is the CEO of a large company that supplies medical equipment, Samsung cellphones, and other products in China; he owned a chain of 50 hotpot restaurants, before selling them during the SARS crisis.[6]
In China, Lin’s mother was a university professor who taught Western economics and international finance, and was the reason that Lin eventually left the country.[7] “My mother thought a western education would be better for me… I’m more of an outgoing, opinionated person,” Lin said in an interview with Macleans.[8]
Anastasia Lin at one of her sessions testifying before the U.S. Congress. Wikipedia.
From YouTube:
China uses its trade power as leverage to infiltrate institutions and bully virtually every Western nation. Anastasia Lin knows this firsthand, having grown up in Communist China and faced down the regime as an international human-rights activist. Even after Chinese rights advocates immigrate to the West, the Communist Party uses their family members in China as leverage to silence and intimidate them. The free world should unite to counter Beijing’s abuse.
Anastasia Lin, an actress and Miss World Canada 2015, is the Centre for Independent Studies scholar-in-residence in 2019. She is the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s ambassador for China policy and a senior fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.
This video is a presentation by Ms. Lin to The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) in Australia in 2019. After 13 minutes at the podium, the remainder of the program consists of a discussion with Tom Switzer, Executive Director at the CIS followed by a Q&A with the audience.
Source: YouTube
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