LIFE HAS CHANGED for Zhang Dachun. A few years ago he was one of Hong Kong's highest-profile red-chip tsars, heading the SAR units of China's biggest shipping company, China Ocean Shipping (Group) (Cosco).
As a mover and shaker in the top echelons of the SAR's corporate world, he rubbed shoulders daily with local tycoons, shipping magnates and political figures, and was used to the fawning attentions of investment bankers.
Today, Mr Zhang leads a less glittering existence as chairman of a fledgling Beijing-based financial consultancy and credit-rating company. China Cheng Xin Securities Rating Co has 28 branches nationwide and a staff of 700, but is far smaller in scale and influence than China's state shipping behemoths.
Mr Zhang, 56, quit to join Cheng Xin in 1999, in what many saw as a protest at being moved from his beloved Cosco (Hong Kong) - which he helped to build up over 30 years - to China Merchants Holdings, another shipping company also controlled by the Ministry of Communications.
Nominally, he received a promotion, becoming president of China Merchants and chairman of listed China Merchants Holdings (International), having been executive vice-chairman and president of Cosco (Hong Kong) and listed Cosco Pacific.
Officials at the time described the reshuffle as 'normal', saying Mr Zhang's four-year term of office had come to an end, but the rumour mill whispered of dissatisfaction with management and investment failures. It was one of a string of management reshuffles at red-chip companies in 1998-99.
More than three years on, his abrupt removal still rankles.