- A Chinese actor was fined $1.1 million for appearing in ads touting candy as a weight-loss drug.
- Jing Tian is known in Hollywood for films such as "Pacific Rim: Uprising" and "Kong: Skull Island."
- The fine comes amid China's ongoing crackdown on celebrities and its entertainment industry.
Chinese actor Jing Tian, who starred in Hollywood films such as "Pacific Rim: Uprising" and "Kong: Skull Island," has been fined more than $1 million for appearing in an ad campaign touting a brand of candy as a weight-loss product.
According to Bloomberg, she breached China's advertising law by acting in ads as a brand ambassador for Guangzhou-based health food company Infinite Free.
In the ads, she said people could stay in shape by taking the company's fruit and vegetable candy product after each meal, which would help to block the body's absorption of sugar, oil, and fat, per the outlet.
Bloomberg reported that the product has since been removed from e-commerce sites such as Alibaba's Taobao and JD.com.
Last Saturday, Guangzhou's market regulator bureau fined Jing 7.22 million yuan ($1.1 million), saying that ordinary food cannot be promoted as having therapeutic effects.
The 33-year-old issued an apology in a post on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform on the same day.
"I hereby offer my solemn apology, for failing to fulfil 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."
The incident is the latest in China's ongoing crackdown on celebrities and its entertainment industry.
Last November, China released a list of 88 celebrities who were blacklisted for "illegal and unethical" behavior, banning them from accessing or appearing on live-streaming platforms.
In the same month, the country barred celebrities from extravagant demonstrations of wealth on social media, reasoning that pop stars should comply with the country's "core socialist values."
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