A Chinese-born Canadian model says she was barred from entering China to participate in the Miss World pageant.

Anastasia Lin, an outspoken critic of China’s religious policy, said on Friday that she was unable to board her connecting flight from Hong Kong after a Chinese official told her by telephone that she would not be granted a visa on arrival.

"If they start to censor beauty pageants - how pathetic is that?'' Lin told The Associated Press in Hong Kong.

In a pre-departure statement, Lin said denying her entry would mean China was trying to prevent her from speaking out about human rights issues.

Lin, who moved to Canada when she was 13, is an outspoken critic of Chinese religious policy and a follower of the Falun Gong meditation group. Dubbed a cult, Falun Gong was outlawed by China's ruling Communist Party in 1999.

Lin said after she won the Canadian beauty title, Chinese security agents visited her father - who still lives in China - in an apparent attempt to intimidate her into silence.

[Aljazeera]