“The situation is that we all speak with one voice from top to bottom: that is that we don’t accept interviews and we have no comment,” the official said.

Until now, at least, a partnership with Ms. Fan has been a prize for international luxury companies. She is a regular sight at red carpets and fashion shows around the world, and has a well-documented love of Louis Vuitton, Valentino and Chopard.

Luxury brands, though, tend to be careful with China, because their biggest growth is in Asian markets.

Montblanc, a German accessories brand that has worked with Ms. Fan since April, confirmed that it had terminated her contract. The company praised Ms. Fan as “the quintessential modern woman” when it brought her on in the spring.

De Beers, the diamond company, has had a long relationship with Ms. Fan, who wore De Beers jewelry at the Cannes Film Festival this year. On Wednesday, she was missing from company web pages. After inquiries about the removal, she reappeared.

Jeff Trexler, associate director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham University, said displays of conspicuous wealth are seen as an affront to the message being promoted by the Chinese government: that everyone in the country is rising upward on an economic wave.

“The more wealthy your spokespeople are, the greater the risk is,” he said.

Companies also worry that if they upset the Chinese government by continuing to promote someone who has fallen from favor, as Ms. Fan appears to have, they might suffer in a variety of ways, from taxes audits to obstacles opening new stores.

When it comes to the entertainment industry, which is heavily censored in China, the authorities appear to be particularly sensitive to the influence stars can have — for better or worse — on public opinion.

In the aftermath of the tax investigation, the authorities also announced new limits on the salaries of actors, even in privately financed films. No one actor can now earn more than 70 percent of the entire cast or more than 40 percent of production costs. The statement did not mention Ms. Fan, but said the industry was “distorting social values” and “fostering money worship tendencies.”

Ms. Hung, the critic, said the investigation clearly had been intended to send a message about celebrity excess — and perhaps even about tax evasion. She noted the often-cited idiom “to kill a chicken to scare the monkey,” and said even the uncertainty around Ms. Fan’s case would have a chilling effect.

“It makes people more nervous,” she said, “when it is unclear what is going on.”

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