Fan Bingbing whistleblower's disappearance sparks intense debate

​Chinese actress Fan Bingbing was hit by a tax evasion scandal late last year, when former CCTV host, Cui Yongyuan uploaded evidence of the actress signing ‘yin-yang contracts’ in a bid to evade taxes.

Since then, the actress has laid low, with reports speculating that she will be retiring from the spotlight. However, Bingbing recently uploaded a selfie on her Weibo, wishing everyone a happy Chinese New Year to the delight of her fans who have been hoping for her to return to the spotlight.

Yongyuan previously mentioned that he still has more evidence of Bingbing’s law-breaking ways. He confirmed in a series of posts on Weibo that he will not hesitate to reveal everything if Bingbing stages her showbiz comeback. Other than exposing the actress’s tax scandal, he has also exposed a case of high-level corruption in Shanghai’s police department, implicating a number of big-wigs.

Recently, his good friend, Chinese actress Yuan Li posted on Weibo, revealing that she has been unable to contact the host. She expressed her hope that he was healthy and well in a follow-up post. However, these posts have since been deleted.

With the recent news that Bingbing will be making her acting comeback in the film, Lady Killer, some netizens couldn’t help but to wonder if Yongyuan’s disappearance was connected to Bingbing’s comeback, and this has since sparked a fierce online debate on the coincidental timing of the two happenings.