Zhao Wei and Fan Bingbing Were Banned, Why Did Zhang Ziyi Rise from "Social Death" to a Grand Slam? Unveiling Zhang Ziyi's Ultimate Patron! White Glove Zhang Jun and the "Distant Prince" Xi Yuanping, Jointly Building a Trillion‑Yuan Entertainment Empire! 【Jiang Feng Vision 20260709 Issue 431】
This episode video reveals actress Zhang Ziyi’s comeback journey from “social death” to becoming the Grand Slam champion of Chinese-language cinema, and deeply analyzes the hidden elite capital operations behind it. The video points out that Zhang Ziyi’s turnaround was not solely due to talent, but benefited from a massive capital network composed of insurance funds, celebrity venture capital funds, and film companies. The core figure of this network is the mysterious businessman Zhang Jun, who is accused of being the “distant prince” Xi Yuanping’s white glove, using the six‑trillion‑RMB insurance funds of Fude Life Insurance, through Houde Qianhai Fund, Star VC, Beijing Culture, Zhejiang Xinghe and other companies, deeply infiltrating and controlling Chinese film production, movie distribution, and star economics. By sorting the timeline, the video shows that Zhang Ziyi’s resource return and the expansion rhythm of Zhang Jun’s capital empire in the entertainment circle are highly coincident, suggesting that there is a higher‑level force behind it than CCTV, ultimately pointing to Xi Yuanping and his family’s influence in cultural propaganda, exposing the operation model of CCP elite capitalism.
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Hello friends, I am Jiang Feng. In November 2013, at the Taipei Golden Horse Awards ceremony, Zhang Ziyi won Best Actress for "The Grandmaster," completing the final piece of the puzzle for the five major Chinese‑language film awards (Golden Horse, Hong Kong Film Awards, Hundred Flowers, Huabiao, Golden Rooster). She was the first actress in the Chinese‑language film world to achieve this. The audience erupted in applause.
She stood on the podium, eyes red. If you only saw this scene, you would think it was a story of talent and hard work. But today I want to tell you another story. In the same year Zhang Ziyi reached the peak of her career, October 2013, in Shenzhen, an insurance company called Fude Life Insurance quietly took out 9 billion RMB and established a fund called Houde Qianhai. This 9 billion of insurance money later flowed into a celebrity venture capital fund called Star VC, and Zhang Ziyi happened to be a partner of Star VC. Where did Star VC’s money come from? From the Houde Qianhai Fund. Where did Houde Qianhai’s money come from?
From Fude Life Insurance, a giant insurer claiming total assets of over 600 billion RMB, the money came from Chinese citizens’ individual insurance policies. Who owns Fude Life Insurance? A mysterious Chaoshan businessman named Zhang Jun. Whose person is Zhang Jun? On a morning in February 2016, Shenzhen authorities stormed Zhang Jun’s home and took him away. Just a few hours earlier, a person had just left Zhang Jun’s house – that person was Xi Yuanping.
The brother of the man at the top of the Zhongnanhai tower, an international actress on the Cannes red carpet, an emperor hidden behind the red wall – they are connected by a secret passage paved with insurance funds. Today we will dissect this passage. To understand how abnormal Zhang Ziyi’s later comeback is, you first need to know how badly she fell in 2009. On December 23, 2009, at the Beijing Guomao CBD Ba Yuefu.
At midnight, a group of men in black rushed to the building below Zhang Ziyi's residence and splashed ink on her giant endorsement poster, shouting in the lobby: "Zhang Ziyi is a mistress, cheating men out of money." At that time, a group of reporters were waiting there for news of Maggie Cheung's engagement, but instead got Zhang Ziyi's ink‑splattering spectacle, which became the sensational Ink‑Splattering Incident. Immediately after, Beijing's top socialite Zhao Xinyu stepped forward to hold a press conference and revealed the whole story. It turned out that at the 2008 Basha Charity Night, Zhao Xinyu introduced Zhang Ziyi to a Shanghai businessman, Mr. A. Mr. A was wealthy and influential, and Zhang Ziyi quickly developed a deeper relationship with him. According to Zhao Xinyu, Mr. A, as if dizzy, gave Zhang Ziyi a pile of sky‑high jewelry: a limited‑edition Tiffany necklace worth tens of millions, a pair of diamond earrings also worth tens of millions, a Hermès diamond crocodile‑skin bag over one million, an Audi costing two million, and two paintings priced at five to six hundred thousand US dollars each. Moreover, Zhang Ziyi still had an official boyfriend at the time.
American billionaire of Israeli descent Vivianivo, meaning he was keeping two boats afloat, added even more explosive details. An insider told the media that Mr. A was only one node in Zhang Ziyi's network of wealthy businessmen. Besides Mr. A, she was also connected with a Zhejiang‑born real‑estate tycoon surnamed S, a Shaanxi real‑estate developer Mr. J, a Hainan real‑estate developer also named Mr. J, and, note this keyword, a certain wealthy figure in Shenzhen. After the Ink‑Splattering Incident came the Donation‑Fraud Incident. Netizens uncovered that during the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Zhang Ziyi raised one million US dollars under the banner of the Wenchuan earthquake, but the whereabouts of the money remain completely unknown.
Finally, after being publicly criticized by CCTV, Zhang Ziyi had to admit she had under‑donated 160,000 and issued an apology statement. The Ink‑Splattering Incident, the Donation‑Fraud Incident, and the Sex‑Tape Incident all slammed down at once. Describing the 2009 Zhang Ziyi situation as a social death is not an exaggeration. She lost endorsement deals, her new film was recast, online criticism was rampant, and she fell from the clouds into a mud pit. Remember this: in the history of China's entertainment industry, any actress who has experienced a scandal of this magnitude essentially never recovers; those who manage to walk away are considered lucky.
Let's review what happened to the big names who fell in recent years. Fan Bingbing, in 2018, was exposed by Cui Yongyuan through a shady contract; the tax bureau confirmed tax evasion, and she ultimately paid back and was fined a total of 883 million yuan. CCTV's news program aired a nearly five‑minute segment. Since then, Fan Bingbing's name has become almost taboo in China's film industry, and she has not been able to make an official comeback. Zhao Wei, in August 2021, saw all her works removed from video platforms overnight—"My Fair Princess" and "Romance in the Rain," series that accompanied a generation's youth. Her name was erased from cast lists, her Weibo super topic was closed, her Baidu Baike entry was edited; this level of internet erasure and ban has no precedent in China's entertainment circle. In the same year, Zheng Shuang was exposed for earning a daily salary of 2.08 million yuan; netizens jokingly coined a new currency unit called "Yi Shuang" (hundred‑million Shuang). She was fined 2.99 billion yuan for tax evasion, and amid surrogacy and abandonment scandals, the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television issued a civilised order prohibiting any program from inviting her, effectively sealing her fate with no ripple left.
She later moved to the United States, selling clothes on social media and living like an ordinary passerby. You see, Fan Bingbing cannot rise, Zhao Wei cannot rise, Zheng Shuang cannot rise. When they fell, there were still some capital forces behind them, but they proved useless. Looking back at Zhang Ziyi, the 2009 triple‑scandal explosion was as severe as, if not more than, the scandals of Fan Bingbing and Zheng Shuang. Moreover, being publicly criticized by CCTV in China is essentially being sealed in a coffin.
But guess what? Just a little over a year later, in 2011, Zhang Ziyi landed the lead role favored by director Gu Changwei, acting opposite Aaron Kwok. In 2013, the legendary director Wong Kar‑Wai had her sweep the Golden Horse Best Actress, Golden Rooster Best Actress, and Asia‑Pacific Film Awards Best Actress, collecting twelve actress trophies in total. From social death to a grand slam in Chinese‑language cinema, Zhang Ziyi achieved this in less than four years. Is this reasonable? In China's entertainment industry, an actress criticized by CCTV, mocked across the internet, and entangled with multiple wealthy businessmen can, within a few years, not only make a comeback but reach heights never before attained.
She relied on her own acting skills to make CCTV shut up. She relied on a director's appreciation; a director with such power must have someone behind him even higher than CCTV. Who is that person? Hold on, let's first discuss a capital chain. At this point, you can see that in this arena of fame and massive capital chess, the game consumes not only great mental effort but also requires abundant energy and good health. Speaking of daily health and energy replenishment, I especially recommend that old friends try Pruitt Hall Black Ginseng. It is made using traditional craftsmanship, pure in quality, and a great aid for boosting qi and vitality.
If you want to support Jiang Feng and help us continue to tell these deep insider stories, click the link below the video and enter the exclusive discount code JF at checkout. Right now, Pure Hall is offering a special promotion: free worldwide shipping for the entire site, and if you spend $500 you’ll get a premium black ginseng root added for free—no limit on how many you can get. Take care of your health so you can see the great era clearly. Okay, the link is below. Back to the main topic.
In October 2013, in Qianhai, Shenzhen, a fund was quietly established called Houde Qianhai Fund. Who funded this fund? Fude Life Insurance, contributing 9 billion RMB, which is 89.5% of the capital. You heard that right—nine hundred million, not a typical private equity fund; this is a massive amount of money built from ordinary people’s insurance premiums. After Houde Qianhai Fund was set up, it did something interesting: it became the hidden backer of Star VC. What is Star VC?
In July 2014, actors Ren Quan, Li Bingbing, and Huang Xiaoming each put in 80 million RMB to create a celebrity venture capital fund, claiming to be the coolest investment institution in China. Eighty million sounds like a lot, but for a VC it’s just pocket change. The real backing for Star VC came from the money of Houde Qianhai Fund behind the scenes. In October 2015, Zhang Ziyi and Huang Bo announced they were joining Star VC as new partners.
The press release at the time was crystal clear; let me read the original: "Future projects invested by Houde Qianhai Fund will have the opportunity to cooperate with Beijing Culture in strategic, equity, capital and other multi‑layered potentials, even launching a PE‑plus‑private‑placement model." In plain language, the money from Houde Qianhai goes into Star VC, Star VC finds good projects, then hands them to Beijing Culture for IPO arbitrage—a complete capital arbitrage channel. Got it.
Now the question: who owns Beijing Culture? Beijing Culture’s predecessor was called Beijing Tourism, which sold tickets to suburban attractions such as Lingshan, Tanzhe Temple, and Jietai Temple. After more than a decade, the earnings were still modest. In 2013 it suddenly announced a shift to film and television, and in 2014 it carried out a 3.3 billion RMB directed private placement, bringing in new shareholders. The largest chunk of that 3.3 billion, 1.3 billion RMB, was subscribed by Fude Life Insurance, which thus became Beijing Culture’s largest shareholder with a 15.81% stake. The real controller of Beijing Culture became the man behind Fude Life Insurance.
Moreover, Beijing Culture used that 3.3 billion to acquire several companies, the most critical of which was Zhejiang Xinghe. What is Zhejiang Xinghe? It is an agency founded by Wang Jinghua. Wang Jinghua’s status in the domestic entertainment industry can be summed up in one sentence: the number one mainland agent. He controls dozens of top stars such as Chen Daoming, Hu Jun, Leung Ka‑fai, Carina Lau, Zhou Dongyu, and others. In 2005 he led most of his star team out of Huayi, nearly toppling the company.
Huayi’s boss Wang Zhongjun was forced to sell houses and cars to get by; insiders call this the biggest earthquake in mainland entertainment history. Zhang Jun, through insurance funds, controlled Beijing Culture, which then acquired Zhejiang Xinghe, effectively pulling China’s largest celebrity‑economy network into the Fude camp. Adding to that, Star VC’s president Wei Wei was previously a partner of the Chongqing Shui Mu Cheng De Cultural Industry Fund.
Who funded Shui Mu Cheng De? Both Houde Qianhai Fund and Fude Life Insurance contributed, and Shui Mu Cheng De is also Yinglian Media, the shareholder of the company that later released "Wolf Warrior 2". You see these names keep looping—Beijing Culture, Yinglian Media, Houde Qianhai, Star VC, Shui Mu Cheng De—each line ultimately converges on the same source: Fude Life Insurance. The actual controller of Fude Life Insurance is a mysterious Chaozhou‑Shantou businessman named Zhang Jun, who operates on the fifth floor of the Huaqiangbei electronics market in Shenzhen and controls nearly ten shadow companies. So Zhang Ziyi’s joining Star VC appears on the surface to be a celebrity crossing over into investment.
In reality, she stepped onto a capital conveyor belt built with 600 billion RMB of insurance funds, but the end of that belt is not Zhang Jun; Zhang Jun is only an intermediary. The belt’s destination lies behind the red wall.
To understand whose proxy Zhang Jun is, we must first answer a fundamental question: where does his money come from? Zhang Jun, originally named Zhang Zhongjun, is from Puning, Guangdong, and in 1985 he ventured alone to Shenzhen. He first worked at a collective enterprise in Bao’an County processing electronic products, then studied in the United States for three years, returned and continued to hustle in Shenzhen. In 1996 he switched to real estate, developing several projects in Longgang, Shenzhen.
New Asia Garden, New World Plaza—sounds impressive, but in reality they are mid‑low‑end projects in remote locations. The Shenzhen real‑estate circle sums up its assessment in one sentence: if Golden Land were a first‑tier enterprise, Zhang Jun’s New Asia would only be fifth‑tier. Fifth‑tier developer—that was his real standing in Shenzhen back then. Yet this fifth‑tier developer, starting in 2006, suddenly seemed to become a different person.
He poured massive amounts of money into an insurance company called Life Insurance, not tens of millions, not a few hundred million, but hundreds of billions. A journalist from New Fortune magazine did a detailed accounting: the total sales revenue from all of Zhang Jun’s real‑estate projects, plus the rental income from his property in the Huaqiangbei electronics mall, amounted to no more than 4 billion in wealth accumulation, yet his investment in Life Insurance was conservatively estimated at over 11 billion.
That leaves a gap of 7 billion. What does 7 billion mean? In the period from 2006 to 2013, that is not a figure an ordinary businessman could muster. Moreover, Zhang Jun not only had to produce that money, he also gradually took 80 % of Life Insurance’s equity into his own hands, squeezing out Dalian Shide’s Xu Ming, Beijing Shougang, Guangdong State‑owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission’s Guangsheng assets, and the Hong Kong Zheng Yu‑tong family—big‑time power players who could move clouds and rain with a flick of the wrist. Why would a fifth‑tier developer force them out? There is only one answer: the people behind Zhang Jun outrank those tycoons.
That person—or rather that family—was based in Shenzhen. What is Shenzhen? It is the stronghold of the Xi family; Xi Zhongxun, the father of the “steamed‑bun” nickname, led Guangdong’s reform and opening, making Shenzhen his political legacy. The Xi family’s network and connections in Shenzhen are tangled and bottomless. After Zhang Jun made a name for himself in Shenzhen in 2006, he acted flamboyantly. Rumors claimed he was close with Xiao Jianhua, the leader of the “Tomorrow” group; both used proxies, related‑share holdings, and non‑related holdings to covertly control a massive asset empire. The difference is that Xiao Jianhua was later captured and taken back from Hong Kong.
Zhang Jun, however, emerged unscathed after six years of detention—a contrast that itself is a huge signal. On February 5, 2016, just before the Spring Festival, Shenzhen authorities came to Zhang Jun’s residence and took him away for investigation. The official reason was his involvement in a case concerning Guangdong Vice‑Governor Liu Zhigeng. Liu, a former district chief and party secretary of Longgang, had intersected with Zhang Jun’s real‑estate activities in that district. It is alleged that Zhang Jun spent several million yuan to help Liu purchase a property in Hong Kong, but insiders say Liu’s affairs were trivial compared to Zhang Jun.
Liu Zhigeng is the most inconspicuous node in Zhang Jun’s elite‑network; the real heavyweight lies elsewhere. The morning Zhang Jun was arrested, Emperor Xi Yuanping had just left his home—a detail that flips the whole story. A person about to be taken away meets the emperor’s younger brother as his last visitor; what does that indicate? It shows that up to the very last moment, Zhang Jun’s relationship with the Xi family remained close and routine.
But the story gets even more intriguing. On April 12, 2018, the first‑instance trial of Tianjin’s Sun Zhengcai bribery case opened. When the court displayed evidence, a bribery suspect’s face was pixelated; the evidence documents clearly named him—Zhang Jun. Zhang Jun bribed Sun Zhengcai, who was labeled an ambitious conspirator and the sixth‑generation successor promoted by the Jiang faction, former Chongqing party secretary. Foreign media quoted an insider who said, “Liu Zhigeng is merely a past chapter of Zhang Jun’s wealth empire.”
Sun Zhengcai is the most powerful backer behind Zhang Jun. So the question arises: if Zhang Jun were merely Sun’s man, why would Xi Yuanping come in and out of his house? If Zhang Jun were an enemy of the Xi family, bribing the emperor’s political foe, Xi Yuanping would have fled, not appeared at his home on the eve of his arrest. The only reasonable explanation is that Zhang Jun served more than one master; he was a multi‑client white glove. In the CCP elite’s capital chessboard, such a role is not uncommon, with each side tacitly aware of the arrangement. The clearest proof is Zhang Jun’s later fate—he was detained for a full six years.
Six years later, at the end of 2022, Zhang Jun returned quietly, facing no judicial penalties and no restructuring of Fude Life Insurance. A bribery witness in the Sun Zhengcai case managed to walk away unscathed and retake control of an insurance empire worth over 600 billion yuan. Think about it: other white gloves caught at the same time—Xiao Jianhua got a 13‑year sentence, the “Tomorrow” group was dismantled piece by piece—why was Zhang Jun an exception? He must have clung tightly for six years, never exposing certain family ties, earning a “golden ticket” to freedom.
Or perhaps a force even higher than Sun Zhengcai gave the signal from above and rescued him. Whatever the answer, it points to the same direction: the Xi family.
Many people think that Xi Yuanping's connection to the entertainment industry was only uncovered in recent years, but if you look closely at the timeline, you will find that his maneuvering started much earlier than anyone imagined. In 2008, Xi Yuanping married Zhang Lanlan. Who is Zhang Lanlan? A military singer, touted as the number one beauty in the army, China’s Marilyn Monroe. She came from the military art troupe system.
That military art troupe is precisely the core area where the Chinese Communist Party’s entertainment circle and elite circle intersect, producing many generals' mistresses and many red‑family daughters‑in‑law. Xi Yuanping’s marriage to the army’s top beauty indicates what? It shows that before 2008, he was already deeply involved in the arts system and the entertainment network, not that he only met these people after getting married, but that he was already part of that circle.
Zhang Lanlan is merely the result, not the cause. What is the significance of 2008? That year, Xi Jinping was still just the Vice President, newly confirmed as the successor, while Xi Yuanping had already begun preparing capital arrangements for his brother’s future ascent to the top. In 2014, Xi Yuanping published a 7,000‑word article in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone newspaper, commemorating his father Xi Zhongxun.
The article publicly displayed his wedding photo with Zhang Lanlan for the first time. What happened next? According to Chinese digital records, the Cyberspace Administration of China subsequently issued an order to delete the article and the photo from the entire internet, even requiring central media to remove them. Why the deletion? Because the article and photo revealed too much information. The emperor’s wife being from the arts system is a highly sensitive signal in the CCP’s power structure. It implies that the Xi family has its own tentacles in cultural propaganda.
Overseas media later pieced together a more complete picture: in Beijing’s elite circle, Xi Yuanping has a nickname, “Distant Prince.” A prince, in this context, means a close relative of the emperor who acts on his behalf. Beijing, as the political and cultural center, handed the massive entertainment‑industry cake to the Xi family through Xi Yuanping, but his method of management is not to appear directly, which would be too low‑level.
He uses a capital‑agency approach, employing white‑handed proxies like Zhang Jun to control film and talent agencies with insurance funds, and then channeling top stars into a profit network via a celebrity fund such as Star VC. Looking back at this chain, does it all connect? Xi Yuanping’s subordinate is Zhang Jun, who controls the 600‑billion‑yuan insurance fund of Fude Life Insurance. Fude Life contributed 9 billion yuan to the Houde Qianhai Fund, which invests in the celebrity venture Star VC, bringing stars such as Zhang Ziyi and Li Bingbing into the fold.
Huang Xiaoming and Huang Bo are also partners of Star VC, forming another branch on the same line. Zhang Jun controls Fude Life, which is the largest shareholder of Beijing Culture. Beijing Culture controls Zhejiang Xinghe, the company of China’s top cultural agent Wang Jinghua, which manages dozens of first‑tier stars. Another branch: Houde Qianhai, together with Fude Life, controls the Shuimu Chengde Fund, which invested in Juhui Film Union and produced “Wolf Warrior II.” These three lines converge into a network that covers Chinese film production, movie distribution, star economics, and venture capital.
The ultimate controller of this network is not Zhang Jun, who is merely the front‑stage operator, but the person living behind the red wall with the nickname “Distant Prince.” Now let’s return to Zhang Ziyi. After the 2009 “Three‑Gate” scandal, her career hit a low point: she was singled out by CCTV, mocked across the internet, lost endorsements, and had a new film recast. Yet starting in 2010, resources suddenly returned. In 2011 she starred in Gu Changwei’s favorite, and in 2013 she swept every best‑actress award with “The Grandmaster.” I asked earlier, why? The answer now lines up.
In the 2009 “Ink‑Splash” scandal, an insider revealed that Zhang Ziyi had an unusual relationship with a Shenzhen billionaire. Who were the few Shenzhen magnates at that time who also had ties to the entertainment world? Zhang Jun is one of the most fitting candidates. Since 2006 he has been Shenzhen’s most famous hidden billionaire; locals know his connection to the “Distant Prince,” and his style is described as flamboyant with deep backing. In 2012, Xi Jinping officially assumed the top position, solidifying Xi Yuanping’s princely status. From that point onward, the capital pipeline built through Zhang Jun accelerated the infiltration of the entertainment industry.
In 2013, Life Insurance invested 9 billion yuan to establish the Houde Qianhai Fund. The same year, Life Insurance poured 1.3 billion yuan into a private placement of Beijing Culture, becoming its largest shareholder. Beijing Culture later acquired Wang Jinghua’s Zhejiang Xinghe. In 2014, Star VC was founded. In 2015, Zhang Ziyi officially joined Star VC as a partner. When you lay out this timeline, Zhang Ziyi’s rebound aligns almost perfectly with the expansion rhythm of Zhang Jun’s capital empire in the entertainment sector. She did not revive through acting talent alone; she was lifted by a force larger than CCTV.
This force, through insurance funds, film investments, and the celebrity economy pipeline, has once again paved the way for him. The source of this pipeline points to distant relative Wang Xiyuanping, which is the complete food chain of the Chinese Communist Party's elite capitalism: power at the top, capital in the middle, celebrities at the front as the façade, and ordinary Chinese people buying policies and paying premiums at the bottom who know nothing. Okay, that's all for today. Please help like and share. If you haven't followed yet, click subscribe. See you in the next episode.