Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
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Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign is now targeting the glamour icons of the entertainment industry. On Wednesday, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported that megastar Fan Bingbing, whose earnings are only second to that of Jackie Chan, will have to cough out $129 million in unpaid taxes and fines. Ms. Fan, 37, has a famous national and international profile. She stars in the well-known X-man and Iron-Man film franchises. Her next film, Air Strike , known in China as Unbreakable Spirit, is set for an international debut this year. It is widely reported that the superstar has had tie-ups with top global brands, including Mont Blanc, the German luxury accessories heavyweight, Louis Vuitton of France, whose catwalk she has graced, as well as De Beers, the British diamond ace. So when the Chinese tax authorities went after Ms. Fan this summer, the message was for all in the Chinese showbiz to come clean. By June, the Chinese actor disappeared from public gaze. Apparently, sleuths of the tax department took her to an undisclosed secret location to get to the bottom of her financial dealings and networks. Her mysterious public absence, in turn, was linked to a bizarre event involving a popular presenter on state television. In May, Cui Yongyuan, a host on China Central Television, showed that Ms. Fan concealed her real taxable income through what are colourfully called Yin and Yang accounts. The Yin account that was presented to the tax authorities showed earnings of $1.6 million for the film Air Strike . But the whistleblower, who incidentally has now acquired a hero’s halo in the cyber universe of Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, showed on screen another, and real payment of the $ 7.8 million, which was not disclosed.
