A storm has hit Baolide, a luxury car dealer in Zhejiang, putting over 600 million yuan invested by Minsheng Life Insurance at risk of being lost. Not only that, but several prominent Zhejiang business figures, including Ding Lei, founder of NetEase, are deeply embroiled in the scandal. To top it off, a renowned female economist allegedly bore a child out of wedlock for a married man who is now a notorious debt defaulter, creating a modern-day version of a high-society "night banquet."
In 2006, director Feng Xiaogang made a film titled "The Banquet," which depicted a tangled web of power, money, and romantic entanglements within the imperial court.
Recently, a real-life "night banquet" that has been unfolding for over a decade within Zhejiang's top-tier wealthy circles was exposed. It involves money, power, and a popular female economist, with a plot more intricate and dramatic than any movie script.
This serves as a reminder that sometimes, reality is indeed stranger than fiction.
Minsheng Life Insurance is being blamed by the male protagonist of this "banquet story" as the one who "pricked the bubble."
The male lead, Yu Haijun, was born in 1974 in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and is the owner of Baolide Group, the largest luxury car dealer in East China.
Investors in companies under Baolide Group, such as Baolide Co., Ltd., include a constellation of Zhejiang's established wealthy elite and nouveau riche, such as Ding Lei, founder of NetEase; Yi Zheng, founder of Tonghuashun; Hu Xiaoming, former president of Ant Group; Lu Weiding of Wanxiang Group; and Lü Zhonglin, the well-connected founder of Lianlian Pay.
Although Yu Haijun came from a humble background, he was intelligent, studious, articulate, and skilled in socializing. He once worked at a local textile company in Shaoxing, where he married a colleague, Chen Yingfei, and they had six children together. The current shareholders of Baolide Group remain Yu Haijun and Chen Yingfei, holding 65% and 35% stakes, respectively.
However, the couple has signed a divorce agreement but has not finalized the legal divorce proceedings. Meanwhile, Yu Haijun has fathered three more children with different women outside his marriage, one of whom is a globally recognized, high-profile female economist, Ms. Jin.
In July 2022, Yu Haijun and Ms. Jin held a full-month celebration for their daughter at a luxurious private villa worth tens of millions, nestled beside the mountains and waters of Qiandao Lake in Hangzhou. "The venue was exquisitely decorated with a long banquet table, an array of premium imported liquors, delicacies, and live band entertainment. Besides a room full of Zhejiang celebrities, even more heavyweight figures attended. Yu Haijun was beaming with joy, while Ms. Jin smiled as she held his hand."
In his younger years, Yu Haijun befriended Lü Zhonglin, the founder of Lianlian Pay, and their friendship has lasted for 30 years. Lü Zhonglin mentioned that when he was studying in California, USA, Yu Haijun sought his private help to obtain a license for a luxury car dealership. "So I helped him."
Before 2022, the luxury car sales business was highly profitable. With banks and auto finance companies providing supporting funds, dealers hardly needed to use their own capital. The real core competitiveness for a dealer was securing the scarce authorization to sell prestigious brands.
Yu Haijun has consistently referred to Lü Zhonglin as his classmate, emphasizing their exceptionally close relationship, describing him as a business partner who could even freely enter and leave the Lü family home.
However, Lü Zhonglin denies they were classmates, stating that while they were familiar with each other, their private lives actually had little overlap.
His relationship with Lü Zhonglin served as a crucial "social password" for Yu Haijun's operations within the Zhejiang tycoon circle.
The fact that a group of business talents were ultimately manipulated by Yu Haijun stemmed from an over-reliance on circle trust, or perhaps, joining the bandwagon merely to gain entry into the core inner circle.
Baolide Co., Ltd. was established in 2011, and Yu Haijun's 4S dealerships were primarily placed under this company. As early as 2015, Baolide Co., Ltd. began planning for an IPO and filed for guidance with underwriters.
In December 2016, Minsheng Life Insurance, under Wanxiang Group, invested 645 million yuan to acquire a stake in Baolide Co., Ltd., becoming the second-largest shareholder. The agreement stipulated that if Baolide Co., Ltd. failed to complete a qualified IPO by the end of 2018, it would need to repurchase the shares at an annualized interest rate of 12%.
Subsequently, as Baolide Co., Ltd. failed to list as scheduled, Minsheng Life Insurance sent a formal demand for repurchase in December 2021. In January 2024, Minsheng Life Insurance filed a lawsuit citing contract disputes.
After the dispute with Minsheng Life Insurance arose, Yu Haijun transferred core assets like the 4S stores from Baolide Co., Ltd. to Baolide Network, and introduced new investors including Ding Lei, Hu Xiaoming, and Hillhouse Capital, hoping to list in Hong Kong.
However, all these plans fell through. In September 2024, Baolide completely collapsed. Audits revealed that from 2016 to 2024, Baolide only reported meager profits in 2017, 2018, and 2021, and had fallen into sustained significant losses since 2023. The 64 companies under the Baolide umbrella had total assets of 3.02 billion yuan but liabilities of 5.978 billion yuan, indicating severe insolvency.
In August 2025, Baolide Holding applied to the Hangzhou Intermediate Court for bankruptcy, and the court accepted the petition.
Since then, it has become extremely difficult for Minsheng Life Insurance to recover its initial investment.
In 2024, the National Financial Regulatory Administration conducted a comprehensive on-site inspection of Minsheng Life Insurance, and the issues within the Baolide project were systematically investigated.
According to Yu Haijun, the repurchase dispute with Wanxiang Group and Minsheng Life Insurance was the main trigger that led Baolide to ultimately declare bankruptcy. "If the dispute had been resolved, it wouldn't have come to bankruptcy."
However, the audit report indicates that high financial expenses and management costs were the core reasons for Baolide's long-term lack of profitability. The company was highly dependent on external funding, even resorting to usurious capital, and operated under a high-leverage debt model for a long time. Furthermore, there were numerous circular transactions among the 64 affiliated companies, and personal funds were heavily commingled with corporate funds. The balance of funds withdrawn by Yu Haijun and Chen Yingfei from Baolide Co., Ltd. reached as high as 3.387 billion yuan.
Naturally, the financial reports Yu Haijun initially presented to the Zhejiang tycoons were also falsified. Hu Xiaoming, former president of Ant Group, believes that Yu Haijun systematically packaged Baolide, including altering financial statements and operational information, to mislead investors.
Lü Zhonglin believes that Yu Haijun has been continuously exploiting his credit over the years as a guarantee for external financing and loans, even to the extent of pressuring him to guarantee usurious loans, which led to the freezing of some of his equity in Lianlian Pay.
In 2025, investors, including Hillhouse Capital, filed reports with the police, accusing Yu Haijun and Baolide of contract fraud. Although Yu Haijun and Chen Yingfei have not yet been subjected to criminal coercive measures, they are currently under exit control. However, informed sources reveal that Chen Yingfei has already managed to leave the country through various means.
After Baolide's collapse, Yu Haijun accelerated the transfer of assets, including the aforementioned luxurious Qiandao Lake villa where his daughter's celebration was held. Despite changing hands several times, and although Yu Haijun has become a "laolai" (notorious debt defaulter), he and his extramarital girlfriend, Ms. Jin, still occasionally reside there.
On January 26, Ms. Jin participated as a guest at the "2026 Asian Investor Conference" hosted by Goldman Sachs' Private Wealth Management division in Hong Kong, where she analyzed the Chinese economy alongside Goldman Sachs' chief China economist.
Despite being at the center of the media storm, Ms. Jin appeared composed and spoke effortlessly.
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