Ding Shumiao is a successful businesswoman, celebrated philanthropist and so well-connected that more than 400 central government and Communist Party leaders attended a huge Spring Festival celebration in early 2010 sponsored by her coal-railway-advertising conglomerate.

(Ding Shuamiao)

So when news recently emerged that government investigators were looking into Ding's finances and railway investments, a shiver went through the highest ranks of the nation's railway and coal industries.