Verdict on Fan’s ‘tax evasion’ expected soon
Such a famous actress and no one knows her whereabouts. And no authorities have made any clarifications. This is the real suspense. Shi Shusi, columnist and commentator
BEIJING: A verdict is expected soon on allegations that actress Fan Bingbing had avoided paying taxes.
A state-run news outlet has reported that Fan had “been brought under control” and was “about to receive legal judgment.”
At Fan’s management office in Beijing’s Dongcheng district, doors are locked, the lights are out and a calendar hanging alongside posters advertising Fan’s film appearances is still turned to July – when she last appeared in public.
Fan turned 37 on Sept 16, but only a handful of entertainment notables sent greetings online.
An automatic birthday greeting on her once-active account on Weibo, China’s main microblogging service, was apparently deleted by persons unknown.
Shi Shusi, a columnist and commentator on Chinese popular culture, suggests Fan’s high profile was her undoing, having made her a target for officials wishing to set an example for would-be tax cheats amid China’s slowing economy.
“Such a famous actress and no one knows her whereabouts. And no authorities have made any clarifications. This is the real suspense,” Shi said.
Fan’s disappearance even brought a message of concern from Hu Xijin, editor of the Global Times tabloid known for its hard-line pro-Communist Party nationalist opinions.
“A timely clarification and public notification of Fan Bingbing’s status would also be beneficial to setting the record straight internationally,” Hu wrote on his Weibo account.
In China, Fan has apparently been blacklisted.
Underlining the status of the case was a September report by China’s Beijing Normal University, which ranked the nation’s biggest names by their level of “social responsibility.” Fan scored a zero out of 100, placing her last in the list.
There have been no reports that Fan has been charged with any transgressions, but her devoted fanbase has struggled to find another explanation for why the frequent Weibo user would go inactive.
The New York Times reports that Montblanc has dropped the actress as ambassador and Australian vitamin brand Swisse removed her from advertisements. Meanwhile her latest project, L.O.R.D.: Lord of Ravaging Dynasties 2, originally scheduled for a July 6 release, has been postponed, with a June 27 message on the film’s Weibo page citing production issues. The Perfect Blue, wrapped in May, has yet to receive a release date and Air Strike, starring Adrien Brody and Bruce Willis has been pushed from August to Oct 26.
British diamond giant De Beers, who signed with Fang just last year, appears to have already moved on: Another actress, Gao Yuanyuan, represented the company at a store opening last month in the ancient capital of Xi’an.
Back in June, Fan’s production company denied Fan had ever a signed a “yin-yang” contract, so named because of its dual natures.
Other celebrities have run afoul of authorities over drug use, excessive pay or tax issues, said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group based in Shanghai.
“Then the government really cracks down hard and pretty much destroys their careers for several years if not forever,” Rein said. Companies that bet big on A-list celebrities incur a “huge political risk,” he said.
In China, obscure rules about morality combined with a new tax code—nixing longstanding exemptions and incentives, and backdated to January—has left the movie industry “very angry,” said Wang Donghui, a producer in China since 2010. “There’s a lot of smoke. People don’t understand what the Film Bureau or tax departments really mean.”