China's state media reported last week that one of its most successful actresses, Fan Bingbing, who vanished from the public eye without explanation in July, was "under control." 
 
 Fan, who played Blink in the 2014 film "X-Men: Days of Future Past," has not been seen in public since July 1 and last posted on social media on June 2. 
 
 Many speculated that she was being held by the Chinese government over allegations of tax evasion. 
 
 Fan played Blink in the 2014 film "X-Men: Days of Future Past." 20th Century Fox/XMen trailer 
 
 Her disappearance came after Cui Yongyuan, a former TV host with the state-owned China Central Television, suggested that the actress had signed secret contracts with a Chinese entertainment company to avoid paying taxes. 
 
 Last week, China's state-run Securities Daily said that Fan was "under control, and will accept the legal decision," several news outlets, including Taiwan News, reported. 
 
 According to Taiwan News, the Securities Daily report added that the actress had been jailed and that what it described as a scandal related to signing multiple contracts to avoid paying higher taxes was only the "tip of the iceberg." 
 
 The Securities Daily article appeared to have been taken down hours after it was published, according to Taiwan News. 
 
 Other news outlets have for months speculated on Fan's whereabouts, and rumors circulated that she was living under house arrest, according to The Epoch Times, a US newspaper focusing on China. 
 
 Her fiancé, the actor Li Chen, last posted on his social-media accounts in early July. 
 
 Fan, right, with the actresses Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Jessica Chastain, and Lupita Nyong'o at the Cannes festival in May. Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for The Hollywood Reporter 
 
 China seems to be censoring news about her 
 
 In late July, the independent Chinese newspaper The Economic Observer reported that police in Jiangsu province were examining Fan's financial case and that several of Fan's staff members were also under police investigation. 
 
 It also reported that Fan and her brother were barred from leaving the country. 
 
 But shortly after it was published, that report appeared to have been taken offline. 
 
 Posts about Fan's whereabouts earlier this year were also removed from social media, according to Free Weibo, a website that tracks social-media censorship in China. 
 
 Citing Free Weibo, the BBC reported in August that comments from Fan's supporters expressing concern also appeared to have been taken down. 
 
 Fan at the 2017 Cannes film festival. Andreas Rentz/Getty 
 
 The 36-year-old has been China's highest-paid actress since 2013, Forbes reported last year. It said she pulls in tens of millions of dollars for her acting roles, as well as several high-end endorsements. 
 
 In June, Fan's studio denied allegations that Fan had signed multiple contracts to evade taxes, saying: "The studio and Fan Bingbing will fully cooperate with the relevant authority. We hope the investigation result can be released soon to answer the public doubt." 
 
 A recent report by academics at Beijing Normal University ranked Fan the lowest in a "social responsibility assessment" of Chinese film and television stars. 
 
 The report evaluated celebrities on three criteria — professional work, charitable work, and integrity — based on media reports over the past year. It found that Fan scored zero out of 100 points. 
 
 Rumors have circulated online that Fan's low score may have resulted from the allegations of criminal activity against her. 
 
 Alexandra Ma contributed to this report. ||||| The star reportedly was held for weeks in a remote "holiday resort" used to investigate Chinese officials suspected of corruption. 
 
 Fan Bingbing, China's most famous — and recently "disappeared" — actress, is back in Beijing and at her liberty, according to local sources. 
 
 The star was released from secret detention and returned to the Chinese capital about two weeks ago, as Beijing regulators concluded their investigation into her tax evasion case, according to a report Thursday in the South China Morning Post, which cited sources "with knowledge of the case." 
 
 On Wednesday, China's tax authorities slapped Fan with a fine equivalent to about $130 million (nearly 892 million yuan) for tax evasion and other offenses. She then issued her first public statement in months — a groveling apology to the Communist Party of China and the public at large, admitting to all wrongdoing and begging for forgiveness. 
 
 A central issue that remained unclear, however, was where Fan had been during the intervening months, and whether she had regained her freedom. The star, usually a ubiquitous presence at glamorous events of East and West, still hasn't been seen in public since July 1. 
 
 A senior film executive in Beijing told THR on Thursday that they had been in contact with Fan since her statement. "She has regained her liberty and is in relatively good spirits," the exec said, asking not to be named because of the case's ongoing sensitivity in China. 
 
 According to the SCMP, the star was held under "residential surveillance at a designated location," an official Chinese form of secret detention. She was reportedly kept in a "holiday resort" used to investigate Chinese officials suspected of corruption, in a suburb of Wuxi in coastal Jiangsu province, where her embattled company is based. 
 
 The practice of "residential surveillance at a designated location” was introduced into Chinese criminal law in 2012. The system allows the Chinese police to detain anyone suspected of endangering state security, plotting terrorism or significant corruption at an undisclosed location for up to six months without access to legal counsel or family contact. The practice has been regularly condemned by international rights groups since its introduction. 
 
 Fan's return to the public sphere followed a script many in the Chinese film industry had privately anticipated: an enormous, signal-sending fine, followed by a carefully orchestrated apology — but none of the bad optics of China's most glamorous movie star being hauled off to jail, which may have appeared too draconian even for the People's Republic of China. 
 
 The timing was also notable, if predictable, to many insiders. The authorities chose the middle of China's weeklong patriotic National Day holiday to unfurl their globally news-making handling of Fan — a time when China's stock exchanges are closed, avoiding the potential for market turmoil caused by a potential crash in entertainment stocks (all eyes are now on Monday when trading resumes). 
 
 As the staggering size of Fan's penalties were unveiled — around $130 million in total — the natural question was whether she could possibly afford it, and just how wealthy "China's highest paid actress actually is." The State Administration of Taxation said Fan will only escape criminal charges if she pays all the money by an undisclosed deadline, according to state news outlet Xinhua. 
 
 One of the very most famous faces from film and television during China's unprecedented box-office boom era — when salaries for top stars exploded — Fan is undoubtedly rich, fantastically so. In addition to prominent roles in films like Feng Xiaogang's Cell Phone and Bryan Singer's X-Men: Days of Future Past, she has also been known as a fashion icon, serving as the public face in China for brands as various as Montblanc, Louis Vuitton, Adidas, De Beers and fashion house Guerlain. 
 
 According to the SCMP's estimates, Fan earned about $208 million (1.4 billion yuan) between 2003 and 2016; and Forbes pegs her 2017 earnings at a whopping $43.5 million (300 million yuan). Just prior to Fan's tax evasion scandal exploding into public view in June, Chinese social media was awash with rumors that she had bought a luxury condo in Shanghai for nearly $40 million (270 million yuan). 
 
 Still, such estimates undoubtedly involve a fair degree of speculation and hazy guesswork. (Consider, after all, that Fan's whole ongoing legal debacle stems from her various machinations over the years to obscure her true income, and that even the Chinese government apparently didn't have anything like a full account of her wealth until its recent investigations). 
 
 But the common thinking in Beijing industry circles has it that the authorities — which have been peering into her accounts for months — wouldn't bother to levy a fine that they had no hope of recouping. And given that she'll most likely be headed to a Chinese prison if she fails to pay in full, most are betting that Fan will find a way to assemble the $130 million. 
 
 As she put it in her apology letter on Wednesday: "I will try my best to overcome all difficulties, raise funds, pay taxes, and pay fines according to the final decision of the tax authorities."
– More than three months after she disappeared from public view, Chinese actress Fan Bingbing has resurfaced. Bingbing, China's most famous and highest-paid actress, is best known internationally for her role as Blink in X-Men: Days of Future Past. She had last been spotted July 1; on Wednesday, she was ordered to pay a $130 million fine for tax evasion and other offenses. For the first time since June, she issued a public statement apologizing for wrongdoing, and now it has been revealed that she was released from a secret detention facility about two weeks ago and returned to Beijing, according to sources cited in the South China Morning Post. Sources say Fan was held at a remote "holiday resort" typically used to investigate Chinese officials who are suspected of corruption. One insider says she was under "residential surveillance at a designated location"—a practice used in China since 2012 that allows anyone suspected of certain crimes to be held for up to six months without access to legal counsel or contact with family. The Post's sources disagree on whether her ordeal is over or whether she will face further questioning, but a senior film executive in Beijing tells the Hollywood Reporter that he and his colleagues have been in touch with Fan since she made her statement and that she is in Beijing. "She has regained her liberty and is in relatively good spirits," according to the executive. It remains unclear whether Fan can afford the penalties; she reportedly has a deadline to pay if she wants to avoid criminal charges and be sent to prison.