Chinese actress Jing Tian (景甜) has been slapped with a US$1.1 million fine for breaching the nation’s advertising law by touting candies as a weight-loss drug.
Jing, who has been in Hollywood blockbusters such as The Great Wall with Matt Damon and Kong: Skull Island, has been a brand ambassador for Infinite Free, a Guangzhou-based company that claimed its fruit and vegetable candy could prevent the body from absorbing sugars, oils and fats.
In the ads, which have since been pulled from e-commerce sites such as Alibaba’s Taobao and JD.com, the 33-year-old actress said that people could keep in shape by taking two “candies” after eating a meal.
The local regulator in Guangzhou imposed a 7.22 million yuan (US$1.1 million) fine on Saturday, saying ordinary food cannot be claimed to have therapeutic effects under advertising law.
The state regulator said it supported the decision in a follow-up statement, adding that market regulators nationwide should step up supervision of celebrities’ advertising activities.
Jing is the latest celebrity to be caught up in a year-long crackdown on the entertainment industry. Regulators have targeted what state media outlets have characterized as “improper” idol worship, excessive wealth held by some and dubious tax practices.
The Chinese cyberspace regulator last year told social media platforms to remove all rankings of celebrities.
One of China’s most popular film stars, Zhao Wei (趙薇), was blacklisted from the nation’s Internet, while actress Zheng Shuang (鄭爽) was ordered to pay 299 million yuan in overdue taxes, late fees and fines.
Jing, who raked in 2.6 million yuan in “illegal income” from the endorsement, apologized on Sina Weibo, saying she did not do enough due diligence when she signed her contract.
“I hereby offer my solemn apology, for failing to fulfill my obligations to examine the contract during the process of signing and for the negative impact on consumers that trust the related product,” she wrote. “I’ll never advertise for any product in this category in future to prevent this from happening again.”
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a