<story><title>Why Did China’s Biggest Movie Star, and the Interpol Chief, Vanish?</title><url>https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-did-chinas-biggest-movie-star-and-the-interpol-chief-vanish</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>nkurz</author><text>&lt;i&gt;After expressing “deep shame and sorrow,” she admitted to years of underreporting her earnings, through the practice of “yin and yang” contracts, in which a smaller contract is disclosed but a larger one is paid to the star. She was ordered to pay a hundred and thirty million dollars in back taxes and penalties. Her actions amounted not only to a personal misstep, she wrote, but to a betrayal of China.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I find myself agreeing with the confession:  if you illegally evade $100 million of taxes by lying about the amount you are paid, you are betraying your country.   While the Chinese approach to prosecution seems open to abuse, the outcome here seems actually seems reasonable: the actress pays substantial penalties but goes on being an actress,  tax evasion is not condoned, and rule of law is upheld.&lt;p&gt;By contrast, the outcomes of the US system often seem perverse: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nytimes.com&amp;#x2F;interactive&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;us&amp;#x2F;politics&amp;#x2F;donald-trump-tax-schemes-fred-trump.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nytimes.com&amp;#x2F;interactive&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;us&amp;#x2F;politics&amp;#x2F;d...&lt;/a&gt;.   This is an in-depth NYT article showing how the current president seems to have used similar illegal maneuvers to avoid paying many millions of inheritance taxes.   The outcome seems to be that if you have enough money, you win, and the ordinary taxpayer loses.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why Did China’s Biggest Movie Star, and the Interpol Chief, Vanish?</title><url>https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-did-chinas-biggest-movie-star-and-the-interpol-chief-vanish</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>_cs2017_</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m puzzled by comments that describe this as a well written article. There are no new facts here; nor are there even any guesses as to what actually caused these detentions. There is no amazing investigative work, no deep unexpected insights.&lt;p&gt;What exactly does this article say to stand above the news media noise? I guess it does provide some simple analysis of the general situation in China, but even here it doesn&amp;#x27;t deviate from the well known story about how Xi Jinping is moving China back towards heavy handed government control.</text></comment>