A CHINESE film star who was arrested last year on tax evasion charges connected to her off-screen businesses had been released on bail, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Liu Xiaoqing was released Saturday after spending more than a year in jail "because she had a repentant attitude over her wrongdoing and had collected money to pay her evaded taxes," Xinhua said.

However, prosecution authorities had filed an indictment to a court against the 52-year-old actress and businesswoman, Xinhua said.

Liu was arrested in Beijing in June 2002 on charges of avoiding taxes of US$1.8 million, a huge sum for a country where the average person makes about US$700 per year.

The detention of Liu was meant to be a strong message to the country's celebrities, entrepreneurs and tycoons that the tax authorities had bolstered their resolution to crack down on tax evasion.

Tax officials quoted by State media have said only four of the 50 richest people in China paid income taxes in 2001.

State media have warned about merciless audits of high-earners and Xinhua has called tax evasion a "social cancer."

Liu is best known as the star of films like "Burning Down Yuan Ming Yuan" and "Look at This Family" in the 1970s and 1980s. But it was her businesses ranging from real estate to cosmetics that made her one of China's richest women.

She was listed two years ago by Forbes magazine as China's 45th-wealthiest individual, with up to US$70 million in assets.

Earlier this year, Xinhua reported that authorities had sold off 18 apartments and houses seized from Liu, raising US$800,000.

Liu's sister, Liu Xiaohong, was also allowed bail, but her brother-in-law, Jing Jun, remains in detention, the Beijing Times reported Saturday.
 
Editor: Wings