China’s Fan Bingbing should thank her lucky stars; her punishment could have been a lot worse
Questions surrounding the superstar Chinese actress’ confession and US$127.8 million fine for tax evasion point to a lack of procedural transparency, Nicolas Groffman writes
We are familiar with the Fan Bingbing story by now. The actress was hidden from public view for 100 days until she confessed to tax evasion. There was no trial.
After her “confession”, she was given a stupendous fine of 884 million yuan (US$127.8 million). She has been listed among the world’s top 10 highest paid actresses, along with Jennifer Lawrence and Deepika Padukone; but she will find her earning potential drastically reduced, because Chinese studios and international advertisers will drop her.
Chinese commentary and English language commentary on the case could not be more different. The latter has tended to focus on the apparent lawlessness with which the matter was handled. The “Chinese view”, however, has been that Fan was lucky to avoid criminal charges.
Chinese legal scholars and journalists have queued up to publish articles and WeChat blogs about why this was possible.
The comments on related articles (which are carefully curated in Chinese blogs) tend to show outraged ordinary citizens complaining about the star’s tax dodging while wise scholars explain that an administrative fine is sufficient and a better way of improving China’s tax collection than the blunt instrument of imprisonment.