Liu Xiaoqing, the actress-turned tycoon whose tax evasion case returns to court this Friday, is starting to excite the tabloids again. Here she is, in a swimsuit, looking pretty good for a fifty-something business woman.

Local English-language rag City Weekend published a good roundup of the case in August, from which this mini biography is extracted:

"Liu Xiaoqing was born in Sichuan province in 1951. After graduating from middle school in 1970, she became a drama actress at the Chengdu Military Drama Group. Ten years later she started to perform for the leading studio in the country, the Beijing Film Studio.

Ms. Liu spent the eighties performing in numerous movies and winning virtually every top acting award that China had to offer. In the process, she won over the hearts of almost every Chinese household as well.  

Starting in 1990, Ms. Liu set up her own business in real estate. Three years and five billion RMB later, her assets included four real estate companies based in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Yantai and Kunming. Besides real restate, Ms. Liu's business interests grew to include the food industry, cosmetics, advertising and film production.  

By the turn of the century, not only was Liu Xiaoqing a famous actress but a billionaire as well. This star, however, was not always shining. During the last four years Ms. Liu has been involved in five legal cases, failing in three with two still under investigation. In addition, scandalous reports on her behavior began appearing from the media." 

The City Weekend story is here.
Sohu's large archive of Liu Xiaoqing stories (in Chinese) and photos is here.