Fan Bingbing was reportedly suing a billionaire who accused her of sleeping with China's vice president when she vanished

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty; Feng Li/Getty

A composite image of Chinese actress Fan Bingbing and vice president Wang Qishan, who were accused of having an affair.

• Chinese actress Fan Bingbing disappeared from the public eye in early July after being accused of tax evasion.
• A new report says she was pursuing a defamation lawsuit against a Chinese billionaire who accused her of having an affair with Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan.
• The billionaire, Guo Wengui, claimed Fan disappeared because "somebody wants to shut Fan up," not because of tax evasion allegations.

Vanished Chinese actress Fan Bingbing was suing a Chinese billionaire over his allegations that she was sleeping with China's vice president when she disappeared, according to a new report.

Fan had been pursuing a defamation lawsuit in the US against billionaire Guo Wengui, who in a series of online videos accused Fan of having an affair with Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan, the Mail on Sunday reported, citing court documents.

The actress, who played Blink in the 2014 film "X-Men: Days of Future Past," disappeared from the public eye in early July shortly after she was accused of tax evasion in China.

Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, who claimed that Fan and Wang were having an affair.

Throughout 2017, Guo published multiple videos online that alleged that Fan had a long-term affair with Wang in Beijing, according to the Mail. The videos claimed that Fan derived financial benefit from the arrangement, but were unclear as how exactly the alleged arrangement may have worked, the publication said.

Guo - who also goes by the name Miles Kwok - lives in self-imposed exile in the Upper East Side of New York City. He regularly posts hour-long YouTube rants against Chinese officials - including Wang.

He posted at least two videos last year discussing his claim that Fan and Wang had an affair.

Wang, 70, is the vice president of China and the eighth-ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party. He is often described as President Xi Jinping's right-hand man and the man behind the country's massive anti-corruption crackdown.

Fan's lawsuit described Guo's claims as "unsupported, wild, and defamatory," the Mail on Sunday reported.

It said the documents included the statement: "Ms Fan has never had any sexual relationship or adulterous affair with Mr Wang, nor has she ever participated in any bribery scheme."

Guo has previously come under scrutiny for the veracity of his claims. For example, he claimed that he bought his New York City apartment for $82 million, when in reality he paid $67.5 million, according to The New York Times.

Business Insider has contacted her lawyer, Andrew Brettler, and his law firm Lavely & Singer, for further comment. Brettler told the Mail on Sunday that he had neither heard from Fan nor her representatives since April.

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Fan had been pursuing a defamation lawsuit against Guo when she disappeared.

Guo also claimed that Fan had disappeared not because of the tax evasion accusations, but because someone in the Chinese Communist Party was trying to attack Wang.

The billionaire told the Mail on Sunday that the tax evasion accusations were a "smokescreen," adding: "Firstly, someone is trying to use Fan Bingbing to get to Wang Qishan. Secondly, somebody wants to shut Fan up."

Chinese-language publications have speculated over Fan's whereabouts over the past week.

The Chinese arm of Radio France Internationale and movie industry site Duowei News reported over the weekend that officials in Jiangsu province were still investigating her case. Hong Kong's Apple Daily tabloid also reported that Fan had been questioned by authorities, but was not allowed to leave her house.

Earlier this month China's state-run Securities Daily reported that Fan was "under control, and will accept the legal decision" that comes from the tax evasion charges.