From AFP:
A Chinese lawmaker has quit a beauty contest after critics accused her of debasing the pageant with politics, state media said Monday.
Yuan Jing, 22, ranked second out of 1,000 contestants in the Miss Chinese International Pageant, insisted she had not withdrawn under pressure, Xinhua news agency said.
“I’m too busy to continue the contest. I have a heavy workload,” she was quoted as saying, citing her political duties.
Yuan is a deputy to the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber-stamp legislature, from the eastern province of Jiangsu.