Missing Chinese Actress Fan Bingbing Breaks Silence

The Chinese actor Fan Bingbing, who has been missing for months amid rumours of possible wrongdoing, has been fined for tax evasion.

She has finally posted on social media, addressing the fines and back taxes she may owe the Chinese government. Fan Bingbing, who is set to appear alongside Bruce Willis in the upcoming film Air Strike, posted on her Weibo account for the first time in months shortly after the penalties were announced, “I failed my country which nurtured me; I failed the society which trusted me; I failed the fans who liked me,” she wrote to her 61 million followers. “Without the Party and the state’s good policies, without the love from the people, there would have been no Fan Bingbing.” The statement also addresses the financial penalties she now faces, “I totally accepted all of them, and will raise funds to pay my taxes and penalties regardless of any obstacles.” Though this is the first fans have heard from her in months, it’s still unclear where she actually is, and whether she is in fact being detained by Chinese authorities as many have speculated.

Fan and her related companies were ordered to pay about 883m yuan ($129m) in fines and unpaid taxes after authorities found she failed to pay about 255m yuan in dues, according to the official Xinhua news agency, which cited the Jiangsu provincial taxation bureau.

One of China’s most famous actors with a career spanning two decades, the 36-year-old is best known in the west for her role in X-Men: Days of Future Past. She has been the face of brands such as Mercedes Benz and Cartier in China.

Fan will not face criminal charges if the fines and back taxes are “paid within the prescribed time limit”, Xinhua reported.