ONE of the world’s best-paid actresses is missing – but there has been no murder investigation and no appeal for witnesses.
It is nearly three months since X-Men star Fan Bingbing had any contact with her friends, family, colleagues or her 62million social media followers.
Yet there is little mystery about the 37-year-old’s fate.
China’s biggest celebrity is now the nation’s most high-profile “disappeared”, presumed to have been whisked into secret detention in one of the Communist state’s sinister “black jails”.
Those deemed to have displayed the “wrong” values can be taken away in the dead of night, with a hood over their head — to be locked away and tortured without any trial.
Academics, party chiefs, lawyers, journalists, artists and human rights campaigners have all been imprisoned as part of China’s new “cultural revolution”.
It is not clear exactly how Fan upset the authorities — but her fame and fortune was probably enough to put her at risk.
Well known in China for years, the former model and singer was catapulted into international fame with her role as Blink in 2104’s X-Men: Days Of Future Past.
Two years later Fan was the fifth-biggest earning actress in the world, raking in £13million, and last year her new fame in the West led to a role as a judge at the Cannes Film Festival.
This year she was cast in her biggest Hollywood role yet, alongside Penelope Cruz in a major spy thriller called 355.
She is also an ambassador for ritzy Western goods including Louis Vuitton, De Beers, Champagne House and Chopard luxury watches.
Fan is also known for showing off expensive designer gowns in the pages of Vanity Fair.
But the more she enjoyed fame and luxury, the more she was likely putting herself in danger.
For the two years, President Xi Jinping has been tightening control over media and entertainment.
The leader has called out those in the arts who “indulge in kitsch, are of low taste and have gradually turned their work into cash cows, or into ecstasy pills for sensual stimulation.”
A new law requires the local film industry to “promote core socialist values” — which in May even led to Peppa Pig cartoons being banned for appealing only to “unruly slackers”.
And in June, just before Fan vanished, regulators announced a cap on actors’ pay and criticised the local movie industry for encouraging “money worship”.
Fan, with her advertising shoots and her fabulous red-carpet designs seemed almost to go out of her way to annoy the regime.
Just how disliked she was officially was seen earlier this month when a state university published a ranking of Chinese stars according to their level of “social responsibilty.”
Fan scored zero out of 100, dead last in the list — despite setting up a charity which provides heart surgery to children in rural Tibet.
But she may have angered the regime for other reasons too.
Engaged to 39-year-old film star Li Chen, she sued for libel last year when rumours of an affair with Vice President Wang Qishan were published by an exile.
She was also accused of securing property deals using bribes.
Both allegations were embarrassing for the government.
Another theory is that she has been arrested for avoiding taxes.
Chinese newspapers reported she had been under investigation for not paying tax on £5.9million of her earnings.
But such tax avoidance is commonplace in China, so it is likely Fan’s real “crime” is being too popular and flaunting her wealth.
Rod Wye, a former first secretary in the British Embassy in Beijing who is now an associate fellow at Chatham House, told The Sun: “For someone like her to be ‘publicly disappeared’ sends out a message that no matter how high you rise the Party can cut you down again.
“If she didn’t declare all her earnings she would only have been behaving like many others in the industry.
“You can’t tell who will be singled out next.
“They want to send out a message to the entertainment industry that they need to be aware of the new morality, which is core socialist values.”
Last week British singer Dua Lipa, 23, witnessed the heavy-handed tactics first hand, when security guards at her concert in Shanghai dragged fans from their seats.
Their offence was to have dared to dance and to flying the LGBT rainbow flag.
Visiting foreign bands also have to have their set list vetted in advance.
In 2014, The Rolling Stones were told they were not allowed to perform Brown Sugar, Honky Tonk Women and Let’s Spend The Night Together because of sexually explicit lyrics.
Meanwhile local broadcasters are not allowed to give screen time to anyone with tattoos or dyed hair.
Superstar Fan was last seen in public on July 1, on a visit to a children’s hospital.
She is believed to have been arrested in Wuxi, near Shanghai.
Her actor boyfriend is also missing.
Dissident lawyer Teng Biao, 45, knows the horrors the pair may be enduring.
In 2011, the year before President Xi took power, the dad-of-two was disappeared for 70 days after organising pro-democracy demonstrations.
Teng, who has since fled to the US, told The Sun: “The secret policemen kidnapped me on the streets in the daytime.
“They interrogated me and I was put in solitary confinement the whole time, where they tortured me.
“I was beaten, deprived of sleep for two days then forced to sleep on the floor.
“They told me they would bury me alive and I certainly feared for my life.”
Since Xi took over the top job, these methods have become fare more common.
Teng explained: “I think Fan Bingbing was arrested under a rule brought in shortly after President Xi Jinping came to power which legalised forced disappearance.”
Meanwhile journalists have also been beaten, held in custody for hours, had their visas cancelled or been “disappeared.”
High-profile reporter Ding Lingjie is currently in detention for having “insulted the state leader”.
Such catch-all offences as “spreading rumours” and “insulting” the President are typical of the communist state.
Xi has even blocked images of Winnie-the-Pooh on social media, and banned recent film Christopher Robin, because opponents of the pudgy president have compared him to the rotund bear.
Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch’s China director, said last night: “You can be detained for ‘violating party discipline,’ which is an incredibly vague term.
“It remains a crime to pick quarrels and stir up trouble.
“We have had people being held for months at a time and tortured.
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“The law in China is whatever President Xi says it is at any time.”
And speaking of activist Liu Xiaobo, a political prisoner who died last year aged 61, she added: “China’s only Nobel Peace Prize winner died in detention.
“That tells you what they are willing to do.”
https://textbacklinkexchanges.com/mystery-of-missing-x-men-star-fan-bingbing-whos-not-been-seen-for-three-months-did-fame-and-riches-lead-to-her-downfall/
News Pictures Mystery of missing X-Men star Fan Bingbing who’s not been seen for THREE months — did fame and riches lead to her downfall?
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Hayden Panettiere
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To achieve her kick-ass figure, Hayden – who plays cheerleader Claire Bennet in Heroes – follows the ‘quartering’ rule. She eats only a quarter of the food on her plate, then waits 20 minutes before deciding whether she needs to eat again.
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kim cattrall
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Age: 52
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SATC star Kim swears by gym sessions with Russian kettle bells (traditional cast-iron weights) and the South Beach Diet to give her the body she wants. To avoid overeating, Kim has a radical diet trick – squirting lemon juice on her leftovers – so she won’t carry on picking.
Kim says: “I am no super-thin Hollywood actress. I am built for men who like women to look like women.”
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