Exclusive | Chinese actress Fan Bingbing tells fans she is ‘ashamed, guilty’ as she gets US$129 million tax bill
Star says she has ‘experienced unprecedented pain and agony’ in first social media post since disappearing three months ago
After months of rumour and speculation as to what might have come of her, China’s highest-paid actress Fan Bingbing was back centre stage on Wednesday with a grovelling apology to her fans and the Communist Party, and a colossal bill for overdue taxes and fines.
“Recently, I have experienced unprecedented pain and agony,” she wrote on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, where she has more than 62 million followers.
“I have undergone profound thought and reflection. I feel ashamed and guilty about what I have done, and I sincerely apologise to you all!”
Fan’s letter – her first public statement since June – came after China’s tax authorities ordered her to pay nearly 884 million yuan (US$129 million) in overdue taxes and fines, Xinhua reported on Wednesday.
The star was released from “residential surveillance at a designated location” – a form of secret detention – about two weeks ago and returned to Beijing as the tax authorities completed their investigation, sources with knowledge of the case told the South China Morning Post.
One said Fan had been kept in a “holiday resort” used to investigate officials, in a suburb of Wuxi in coastal Jiangsu province.