In recent years, mainland China has been rocked by numerous scandals involving celebrities evading taxes and facing severe repercussions. Just recently, the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television of the Chinese Communist Party held a “2025 Youth Actors and Agents Training Class”, with 34 actors and 23 agents participating. The “invited” list was leaked, with the name of Fan Chengcheng becoming a hot topic on Weibo.
According to the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television of China, the “2025 Youth Actors and Agents Training Class (Phase Two)” took place in Beijing from May 18th to 21st, with a total of 34 actors and 23 agents participating in the training.
In the report by the “New Beijing News”, it was mentioned that the training class included additional teaching hours on tax laws, with experienced practicing lawyers invited to explain tax law examples. Apart from tax law lessons, the curriculum also covered fan management, public relations handling, and psychological counseling.
While the list of “invited” actors included Bai Yu, Chen Duling, Chun Xia, Fan Chengcheng, Jing Boran, Jiao Junyan, Yang Chaoyue, Zhu Yawen, among others, the media specifically highlighted Fan Chengcheng’s name in the headline. This drew comparisons to Fan Chengcheng’s sister, Fan Bingbing, who was embroiled in a tax evasion scandal in 2018, leading to a significant downturn in her image and acting career. Despite managing her own cosmetics brand, she has been unable to resume acting in mainland China.
Following the surge of the keyword “Fan Chengcheng and 34 actors participate in tax law training” on Weibo hot search, netizens have been commenting, questioning why Fan Chengcheng was singled out for attention during the training.
Regarding this official “training,” public opinion has been divided. Some netizens support such initiatives, emphasizing the necessity for heightened tax awareness in the entertainment industry, stating, “It’s good, stars should attend more classes like this to reduce tax issues.” On the other hand, there are doubts about the actual effectiveness of the training, with comments like, “I support this training, but it may not necessarily be effective,” and “It seems that those who really need to attend classes didn’t go, only the honest ones did.”
Reports from mainland China have revealed that Fan Bingbing was fined over 880 million yuan in overdue taxes after disappearing from the public eye for 123 days in 2018, sparking a tax payment storm in the entertainment industry. According to “Sina Entertainment,” in the last three months of 2018, personnel in the film and television industry voluntarily declared and paid back taxes amounting to 11.747 billion yuan, with 11.553 billion yuan already collected by the treasury, and frontline actors paying an average of over 100 million yuan in back taxes.
As China’s economy faces a sharp decline and investors are pulling out, actors are experiencing significant reductions in their remuneration, with many left without acting opportunities. Some netizens have raised concerns about how much more “wool” the Chinese Communist Party can shear from this significantly weakened “cash cow” in the entertainment industry.