Human rights are being brought underneath the spotlight once again, this time from a beauty queen
Chinese-born Miss World Canada has used her platform to blast continued human rights abuses in China, the main financial backers of Miss World. This could get ugly.
- Anastasia Lin launches a fresh attack on organ harvesting in China. Reportedly, 60,000 to 100,000 organs are transplanted each year in Chinese hospitals for sale on black market.
- Chinese-Canadian actress, model, beauty pageant titleholder and human rights advocate has become a thorn in the side of Beijing.
- “Badass Beauty Queen” at center of international spat with Canada, who continue to support Ms Lin despite banning from 2015 Miss World Finals in Sanya, China.
The Murky World of Organ Harvesting in China
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According to reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, political prisoners are being executed “on demand” in order to provide organs to recipients.
This systematic organ harvesting program is alleged to be taking place both as a result of the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of religious minority Falun Gong and the big money involved in the black market.
The Chinese government has consistently denied the allegations.
The Badass Beauty Queen
Miss World Canada, otherwise known as Anastasia Lin, moved to Canada from China in 2003 when she was 13, with her father remaining in the Hunan province of China.
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Ever since assuming the title, she has consistently criticized Beijing and turned her into an overnight leading human rights advocacy figure.
The New York Times summed in up nicely, writing that “Ms. Lin, it turns out, has become a public-relations nightmare for Beijing…. She is also charismatic, canny and media-savvy. Her David-and-Goliath clash with the Chinese government has drawn sympathetic media attention and legions of supporters around the world, providing her an even bigger platform to speak out about the imprisonment and torture Falun Gong adherents face in China.”
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Capturing a wave of support from charities and political groups, magazine Marie Claire declared as her “The Badass Beauty Queen” in an interview that followed Lin’s participation in an Oxford University debate.
China’s Record on Human Rights
- Amnesty International claims that there are more executions in China than the rest of the world combined. With no officially published statistics, advocates estimate the number of executed prisoners to be in the thousands.
- Chinese authorities are known to target activists with harassment, imprisonment and torture despite growing international pressure. Often the families of activists face the same punishments for dissent.
- Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo is currently serving an 11-year jail term for subversion, a political charge.
- Human Rights groups say that Tibetans, Uighurs and Mongolians face discrimination daily and act as ‘second-class’ citizens.
- China regards Falun Gong as a “cult” and claims followers engage in “anti-China political activities. “According to Amnesty International, “tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been arbitrarily detained” since the government launched a crackdown on the practice in 1999.
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A Voice That China Wants to Silence
Anastasia Lin has been a surprising and persistent voice against China. It’s a voice the Chinese are doing their utmost to silence.
he newly elected government of Canada has renewed the country’s support for its Miss World contestant’s efforts to raise awareness of human rights violations in China, amid fresh claims of harassment by Chinese officials.
But Miss World Canada is media-savvy and well aware of the platform her title offers. With full support from Canada and a growing momentum behind the campaign against the grisly trade of organ harvesting, Anastasia Lin has become an inspiring figure to reckon with.
Photo credit: Flickr