From the American Heritage Dictionary:
Chinese wall
n. A barrier, especially one that seriously hinders communication or understanding: "still believe a Chinese wall can exist between public and private selves" (Gail Sheehy).
From Investopedia:
Chinese wall
The ethical (not physical) barrier between different divisions of a financial (or other) institution to avoid conflict of interest... The "wall" is thrown up to prevent leaks of corporate inside information, which could influence the advice given to clients making investments, and allow staff to take advantage of facts that are not yet known to the general public.
I'm going to be talking about a Chinese wall in an entirely different sense here, a sense that I'd actually not heard used in this context before now.
What follows below the fold is a story that was told to me by a follow member of the Daily Kos community in a series of emails over the past week.
The words in blockquotes are hers. All I have done is edit to remove any detail that I felt could potentially aid in identifying her.
It's a long story. Part 2 will be posted next weekend.