Miss Taiwan is not interested in Chinese pageant

China is inviting Taiwanese women to compete in its Miss China beauty pageant, but the nation's top beauties aren't interested in the contest, which requires them to "passionately love the motherland" and "support the Communist Party," a newspaper reported yesterday.

The reigning Miss Taiwan, Liu An-na (劉安納), said she was interested in competing in China's contest, which crowns a winner on Dec. 28, until she found out about the criteria for being politically correct, a Chinese-language newspaper reported.

"I very passionately love Taiwan," the newspaper quoted Liu as saying. "Why would I have to endorse the Communist Party and the motherland. There's no way I could participate."

The newspaper said that women from Hong Kong and Macau have also been invited to compete in the contest. Another Taiwanese, Beverly Chen (陳思羽), who represented Taiwan in last June's Miss Universe contest in Panama, said she doesn't plan to compete, the newspaper said.

"I have no desire to participate. I'll let someone else have the opportunity," she was quoted as saying.

Chen got caught up in the China-Taiwan rivalry during the Miss Universe contest when China pressured the organizers to insist that she not wear her "Miss Taiwan" sash on stage. She was forced to wear a sash that said "Miss Chinese Taipei," the title the country uses in the Olympics.

Chen told reporters in Panama that there were no hard feelings between her and the Miss China contestant, Wei Wu (吳薇). Chen, who studied at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, said she often helped interpret for Wei, who does not speak English. Neither was in the group of five finalists.

For decades, China refused to hold beauty pageants or send contestants to the major competitions, such as Miss Universe. But last year, China sent its first delegate to the Miss Universe pageant in 51 years.

This year, China plans to host the Miss World contest on Dec. 6 in the city of Sanya on Hainan Island in the South China Sea.