After the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, the mainland was placed under economic sanctions and the project, backed by then premier Li Peng, was touted as a symbol of self-reliance and diplomatic defiance. It had the highest political guarantees and anyone who opposed it risked being accused of opposing the Communist Party. The biggest branch of Mr Jin's company was in his home town of Zhengzhou. Founded in February 1993, it lost 20 million yuan within six months. But when work started on the Three Gorges project in 1994, the branch suddenly found itself with a licence to borrow more money.
Officials see it as a huge opportunity to get rich.
It is a black hole. Mr Jin's son, Jin Jiyuan, borrowed 30 million yuan from the Zhengzhou trust and investment co-operative and transferred it to Guangzhou, where he established a branch of his father's Three Gorges company. His daughter, Jin Jihui, borrowed 280 million yuan. No one is sure where all this money went. But it was not long before the Zhengzhou trust collapsed, in 1997.