Anastasia Lin won her title as Miss World Canada on May 16th partly due to her human rights activism, but she says her father is being threatened in China because of it.
Lin came to Canada 10 years ago with her mother, who is divorced from her father. After her victory, she started getting frightening text messages from her father saying he had had been visited by security forces. He asked her to stop speaking out or he would no longer support her.
Lin afraid for her father
When she asked whether he had been threatened, he asked her to never mention it. Lin says she is very much afraid for her father.
Lin was a theatre major at the University of Toronto and has appeared in several films that illustrate human rights abuses in China. She says she cannot back down from that kind of work. She hopes that bringing international attention to the situation will get security authorities in China to leave her father alone.
Miss World finals will take place in China and Lin wonders whether Chinese authorities will grant her a visa to attend.
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