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This may sound ridiculous or terrifying, but it's reality in China, where one of the country's most famous actresses has disappeared without a trace in a uproar against celebrity tax evasion.
Fan Bingbing, one of China's best-paid and credit-worthy stars, has appeared in Chinese and Western films, including the multi-million dollar franchise.
Across the country, his face once adorned with thousands of commercials, his star sold a galaxy of luxury brands, from Cartier to Louis Vuitton. She regularly attended important fashion shows and ceremonies. In 2015, Time Magazine named its "most famous actress" in China.
In an article published on September 6 by the state media, Securities Daily, which was subsequently deleted, the publication said Fan had been "under control and about to receive legal judgment."
No official statement has been made about Fan's whereabouts or potential charges against the actress.
However, in a country where the biggest celebrities are forced to keep a harmless public profile to stay in the good graces of the Chinese government, people have drawn their own conclusions about where the actress is.
"If you're a billionaire, then you can enjoy to some extent, but you have to be very, very careful that you never cross a red line of some sort from the Chinese Communist Party," CNN's Fergus Ryan told CNN , a computer analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Yin yang contracts
Fan's alleged problems began when alleged copies of a movie contract she had signed were leaked on Chinese social media at the end of May.
The Fan team denied at the time, but the actress has not been seen in public since the dispute.
A producer with a large Chinese studio told CNN that having two contracts, one of them to avoid paying too much tax, was "universal" in the film industry.
He said that everyone was worried about Fan's disappearance, especially because "almost all contracts contain irregularities" and do not stand up to a serious audit.
Like other industry insiders, CNN spoke with him, he declined to be named because of the subject's political sensitivity.
Scare the celebrities
Jonathan Landreth, former Asia editor for the Hollywood Reporter and long-time observer of the entertainment industry in China, told CNN that the Chinese Communist Party was in a delicate line, eager to use celebrities to sell the "Chinese dream". want to promote the fracture of brutal income.
"Maybe it's just scary to people to … start paying taxes .If someone had to go bankrupt, then I think it would have a driving effect on film production in the world." years to come, "said Landreth.
A Chinese bureau chief at a foreign film studio told CNN that the lack of Chinese celebrities in China has increased the bargaining power and income of some lucky people, like Fan.
While the repression of these problems could solve other problems, she said that this would not help to remedy the fundamental lack of talent in the Chinese film and television industries.
Combined with strict ideological control, these measures only create a "sad situation" in the creative sector in China, she said.
The controls, however, can only go so far. The Chinese government needs high profile celebrities to help boost trade, both nationally and internationally, to promote China, Landreth said.
The repression may actually be aimed at solving a different problem facing the authorities. "It's been a long time since the budget of a movie is a great way to hide money," said Landreth.
Communist Party leaders can hope that by highlighting the celebrity's tax evasion, this could distract attention and avoid a closer public scrutiny of alleged corruption among government officials and their counterparts. families, Landreth told CNN.
Disseminate "positive energy"
The Chinese Communist Party has long had an uncomfortable relationship with celebrities.
The result is a celebrity culture that has less in common with the salacious and controversial Hollywood familiar to the western world. In China, celebrities often try to keep their reputation "positive and harmless".
Australian analyst Ryan said that while living in China, he worked with the advertising team of Chinese actress and singer Li Bingbing.
He encouraged Li to become more involved in environmental causes, including the United Nations Environment Program.
But Ryan said that one would never choose a cause, or would not engage in a fight that was ahead of what the Communist Party was comfortable with, especially if it objected to the current policy of the government.
"You would be stupid to take the lead of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese authorities," he said.
Despite the speculation and worry, Ryan said that it was possible that the explanation of Fan's disappearance was actually very simple.
"She may have done something wrong … the evidence has been disseminated so that everyone can see, in a way that would put the authorities in a position where they should take it seriously," he said. he declared.
Serenitie Wang from CNN contributed to this report.
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