Following actor Darren Wang, a string of Taiwanese celebrities have been exposed for military service corruption, and Chen Bolin, who is also well-known in Korea, has been arrested for involvement in the same case.
According to Taiwanese media outlets including ET Today on the 21st (local time), New Taipei City police arrested actor Chen Bolin, singer Xu Guo-hui, Energy group member Zhang Xue-wei, and Lollipop member Xiao Jie on charges of evading military service.
All of them admitted to paying between 100,000 Taiwan dollars (about 460,000 KRW) and 500,000 Taiwan dollars (about 2.3 million KRW) to an agency that facilitated military service evasion and falsified their medical records. They were then transferred to the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for re-investigation.
Earlier in February, Taiwanese actor Darren Wang was caught evading military service, and police arrested broker Mr. Chen, who had helped him. Upon seizing and searching his phone, police discovered that Chen had been in contact with multiple celebrities, including Darren Wang. In May, nine entertainers were arrested in the second round of investigations, and in this third round, four more, including Chen Bolin, were detained.
This is not the first time Chen Bolin has been embroiled in controversy over military service evasion. In 2011, similar suspicions arose, but he explained, “I was exempted from military service because of asthma, so I was not obligated to serve,” adding, “It’s not something to be particularly proud of.”
Born in 1983, Chen Bolin rose to stardom after appearing in the representative Taiwanese youth film Blue Gate Crossing with Gwei Lun-mei. He later gained recognition in Korea through his performances in Bad Guys Must Die and Risking Life for Love, where he worked alongside actresses Son Ye-jin and Ha Ji-won.
The original article ran under the headline “Actor who worked with Son Ye-jin and Ha Ji-won arrested by police for military service corruption… admits guilt,” which sparked angry reactions from Korean media outlets. Some pointed out that publishing news about Taiwanese actors was considered trivial. Read the comments:
- Did you really have to drag Son Ye-jin and Ha Ji-won into this to feel satisfied?
- Trash journalist, stop writing these useless articles!!
- The reason they mentioned Son Ye-jin and Ha Ji-won is because that way they get more comments lol journalists’ incentives.
- What about Joo Jin-woo?? What about Yoon Suk-yeol?? What about the People Power Party lawmakers??
