Can’t Miss World Go Elsewhere?

Today’s installment of my “Oslo Journal” features Anastasia Lin, who is something rare: actress, beauty queen, human-rights advocate. A Chinese-born immigrant to Canada, she was crowned Miss World Canada last year. But she could not compete in the international competition: because the competition was held in China. And China declared her “persona non grata.”

Anastasia Lin’s platform, so to speak, was human rights. And that was of course intolerable to the Chinese dictatorship.

Her case brings up a question: Why should international events be held in police states? I believe they should not. For National Review a couple of times, I wrote about, and against, the Olympic Games in the PRC. The first time was in 2000, when Beijing was on the verge of being awarded the 2008 Games. (For that piece, go here.) The second time was in 2008 itself, on the eve of the Games. I explained how democracies had turned a blind eye to Beijing’s repression — its Olympics-related repression. (For that piece, go here.)

The Miss World organization turned a blind eye, too. They pretended that Anastasia Lin’s non-participation was the result of some visa snag. The Canadian organization — the Canadian branch of Miss World — has been stand-up.

Anastasia has family in China: her father. The state has turned on him viciously, of course, owing to his daughter’s stance on human rights. This is part of what dictatorships do: attack families.

International events should not be held in such states.

In a podcast with me, Anastasia made a point that is too seldom made: Democracies are supposed to influence police states; instead, police states wind up influencing democracies. We accommodate them. We conform to them. We compromise ourselves. We jettison conscience. You can see it in our relations with the PRC, with the Castros, etc.

Let me conclude this post with something I say in my column today — my journal. A few years ago, I wrote a history of the Nobel Peace Prize (Peace, They Say). That book contains an essay on peace — an essay asking, essentially, “What is it?” I note that there has long been some tension between peace and freedom. Here are a few lines:

You are familiar with the great, clichéd line in beauty pageants. The contestant is asked what she most wants. She answers, “World peace.” Has a contestant ever said, “World freedom”? That would shake up the judges.

Anastasia Lin is a freedom gal. And a peace gal. A believer in “peace with freedom,” as Mrs. Thatcher liked to say, and as I like to say, and as you do, too.