The status of X-Men: Days of Future Past star Fan Bingbing has finally been revealed by Securities Daily, a state-run Chinese publication. According to the publication, Fan has been placed “under control, and will accept the legal decision.”
Fan was reportedly under investigation for tax evasion back in June for utilizing “yin-yang” contracts, which allow actors to collect large sums of money by signing multiple contracts for a single film project and also evade taxes. The contracts are illegal in China. Fan’s arrest stems from a conflict she had with a Chinese television presenter, Cui Yongyuan, who claimed the actor had been utilizing such contracts. Cui’s accusation came at a time when the Chinese government was widely cracking down on corruption.
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Shortly after the initial accusation was made, Fan went silent on all social media accounts. In August, reports began circulating that Fan had not been seen in public since early July, prompting many to speculate that she had been arrested by Chinese officials, or had at least been brought into some form of custody. Her boyfriend, actor Li Chen, had also reportedly been missing since early July.
Later in August, reports began surfacing that Fan had received a three-year ban from acting for her involvement with the illegal contracts, though those rumors remained unsubstantiated. Today’s report does not clarify what kind of punishment Fan might face as a result of her charges, but Securities Daily does confirm that the allegations against her go further than yin-yang contracts.
“Yin-yang contracts are only the tip of the iceberg,” said the publication via The Epoch Times. “She is also suspected of participating in illegal lending and other forms of corruption. In the worst case, she faces legal punishment.”
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Fan is widely known as one of the highest-paid actors in China. She came to prominence in the late ‘90s with films like the period drama My Fair Princess and Cell Phone, which was the highest-grossing Chinese film of 2003. Fan reportedly earned roughly $17 million in 2016, making her the fifth highest-paid actor in the country. She is perhaps best known to Western audiences as Blink from Fox’s X-Men: Days of Future Past.
The actor’s legal trouble has brought uncertainty to the numerous productions she was engaged to work on, including Simon Kinberg’s 355, a spy thriller with an all-woman, internationally-focused cast. The fate of this film, as well as all others Fan was slated to appear in, is up in the air.