China's film industry is paralysed and a $ 1.7-bn tax demand is the reason

China recently reported its worst January box office receipts since 2015, while the number of movies produced began to fall last September, a harbinger of leaner times ahead

One day last July, Fan Bingbing, China’s highest-paid movie star, seemed to vanished from the face of the earth. Her disappearance occurred around the time the government opened an investigation into Chinese film industry tax practices. Both her fans and film executives feared the worst. But in October Fan reappeared as mysteriously as she had vanished. She made a public apology to her fans and agreed to pay more than $100 million in back taxes.

The 37-year-old Fan’s public humiliation unleashed a deep chill in an industry that until recently had been humming along. Every week brought fresh reports of stars