Wu Bing, a name that may not be familiar to many. In fact, some people born in the 60s and 70s may be more familiar with her. She was once our country's double champion in gymnastics and synchronized swimming.
However, as a world champion who once brought glory to the country, she entered the entertainment industry after retirement. After making enough money, she cashed out 4.4 billion yuan frantically and fled to the United States. To this day, she still claims to be ill and refuses to return to China for investigation.
So, how did Wu Bing go from a sports hero to a national traitor?
In 1963, Wu Bing was born in Beijing. From an early age, she showed extraordinary athletic talent, so under the arrangement of her family, she began practicing gymnastics. For a child, the difficulty of gymnastics training is beyond imagination. Every day, she undergoes high-intensity physical training and flexibility exercises, repeatedly performing monotonous movements. Even when sweat soaks through her clothes and tears well up in her eyes, Wu Bing has never shown the slightest hint of backing down.
It must be said that Wu Bing is talented. At the age of 13, she won the national gymnastics championship. Afterwards, Wu Bing entered the national team and achieved remarkable results in various events such as gymnastics team, free gymnastics, and balance beam.
At the age of 17, the national team established a synchronized swimming team.
This was a new project. Despite having already achieved some success in the gymnastics industry, she chose to challenge herself again by joining the national synchronized swimming team. This meant she had to start all over again.
However, Wu Bing has a tenacious spirit in her bones. No matter how big the challenge, she just keeps pushing forward. Relying on the solid foundation built from years of gymnastics training, especially her outstanding flexibility and coordination, she quickly adapted to the rhythm of synchronized swimming.
In the following year's synchronized swimming championship, Wu Bing directly won the championship, successfully transitioning.
For a time, Wu Bing became a rare double champion in the sports world, both in gymnastics and synchronized swimming. Her name became well-known throughout the sports world.
But years of training left Wu Bing with a body full of injuries, and at the age of 20, she officially retired.
After retiring, Wu Bing did not rest on her past glories. Her heart harbored greater dreams and pursuits, and she resolutely embarked on a path of cross-industry transformation.
Initially, she traveled far to Australia, where she used her exquisite professional skills and rich coaching experience to become a gymnastics coach. She passed on her love and understanding of gymnastics to the young generation in a foreign land. However, the feeling of drifting in a foreign country always made it difficult for her to find a true sense of belonging.
Therefore, Wu Bing chose to return to China.
By chance, she stepped into the film and television industry. It was also a good opportunity, as Jackie Chan was preparing to shoot "Stage Sisters" and needed a girl who could do somersaults. Wu Bing, with her gymnastics background and decent appearance, participated in the film.
Being able to work with Jackie Chan right from the start is a very high starting point for many actresses. From then on, Wu Bing participated in many works. In just three years, she participated in the filming of more than 30 works, and her remuneration rose to 300,000 yuan.
If things continued like this, Wu Bing might have become an excellent actress. But Wu Bing's ambition went far beyond that. She keenly sensed the huge commercial potential behind the film and television industry.
In 1993, she joined forces with like-minded partner Xiao Wenge (who later became Wu Bing's husband) to establish DMG Media Company, officially entering the business field.
The road to entrepreneurship is fraught with thorns, with problems such as lack of funds, shortage of talent, and fierce market competition coming one after another. However, the indomitable spirit in Wu Bing's bones was once again aroused. Relying on the tenacious willpower cultivated during her time as an athlete, she traveled around to attract investment and negotiate cooperation, carefully selecting quality projects. Starting from advertising production, she gradually expanded her business territory, venturing into areas such as film and television investment and distribution.
Under her leadership, the company gradually got back on track and invested in shooting a series of popular masterpieces, such as "The Founding of a Republic," "Go Lala Go!," and "Iron Man 3," gaining fame in the film and television industry. DMG Media also became one of the leading enterprises in the industry, and Wu Bing completed her transformation from a sports champion to a businesswoman.
As the commercial territory continued to expand, Wu Bing's heart was gradually eroded by greed.
In 2014, in order to meet the capital requirements for the company's listing, she actually chose an illegal path. She instructed the company's financial personnel to cook the books, exaggerate the company's profits, forge financial statements, and package a company that was actually losing money and riddled with loopholes into a dazzling and seemingly limitless "cash cow."
Under the guise of false financial reports, the company was successfully listed, attracting a large number of investors. On one hand, Wu Bing solemnly promised investors that the company would make tens of millions of yuan in net profit every year, painting a beautiful picture of development, while on the other hand, she was secretly cashing out frantically.
She colluded with her husband, Xiao Wenge, using a series of complex and covert operations, such as share transfers and trust pledges, to gradually transfer the company's assets to her own name, and then quickly converted them into cash, totaling as much as 4.4 billion yuan.
Before the truth came to light, Wu Bing had already prepared an escape route, obtaining American citizenship in advance. When regulatory authorities noticed something amiss and started investigating, she had already fled to the United States with a huge fortune, leaving behind a mess and abandoning the hopeful investors and partners, letting them fend for themselves.
When news of Wu Bing's escape with money reached China, public opinion was in an uproar.
Investors were furious; their hard-earned wealth had instantly turned to nothing, plunging many families into difficulties and despair.
The national sports department also felt deeply distressed. A champion who had been nurtured with great effort had now become a sinner of the nation, tarnishing the reputation of Chinese sports.
Faced with pressure from all sides, Wu Bing showed no remorse. When the Chinese judicial department, in conjunction with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requested assistance from the US government, asking her to return to China for investigation, she shamelessly pretended to be sick, claiming that she was seriously ill and unable to return.
In reality, however, she was living a life of luxury in the United States, residing in a mansion worth tens of millions, driving luxury cars, and even owning a private jet. She wantonly squandered the ill-gotten gains, disregarding the interests of the state and the people, and remained above the law.
Epilogue
Looking back on Wu Bing's journey, we find that every step she took seemed smooth. But behind the smoothness lies the tenacity and patience inherent in Wu Bing.
However, no one expected that greed would lead Wu Bing down a path of no return.
The spirit of sports is not just about striving and glory on the field, but also about perseverance and responsibility off the field. Along the way, Wu Bing has gone too far, forgetting her original intentions and why she started.
How can Wu Bing and her husband enjoy themselves with peace of mind, building their enjoyment on the suffering of others? It can only be said that once a person is consumed by desire, they lose the ability to think and their conscience. It's just a pity that the former sports hero has become a disgrace to the sports world.
I wonder if Wu Bing ever regrets taking this path of no return when she occasionally looks back on her journey.