WASHINGTON — Three years ago, in the aftermath of the deadly crackdown on demonstrators in Tian An Men Square, the United States and the other leading industrialized nations organized a freeze on international lending to China, cutting off Beijing's access to billions of dollars in credit.

Yet since then, with the quiet acquiescence of the Bush Administration and the active encouragement of Japan and Western European countries, China has managed not only to get the money flowing again, but to increase it above the levels that existed before 1989.

Last year, the Washington-based World Bank lent Beijing a stunning $2.5 billion, more than it provided to any other nation. China got more World Bank money than all the countries of Eastern Europe combined. And more than a third of these loans were interest-free for periods of three to four decades.

The loans--many of them from a special World Bank fund set aside for the poorest nations on Earth--help to buttress the booming Chinese economy. While China has enough lingering poverty to qualify for the loans, its foreign-exchange reserves now rank among the largest in the world, and its economic growth rate is several times greater than that of the United States.

China got a $60-million, interest-free World Bank loan last year to help the urban transport system in Shanghai. It obtained a $162-million loan, also interest-free, to aid Guangdong province, China's richest area and the fastest-growing region in all of East Asia.

The United States contributes more than any other nation, about $1 billion each year, to the World Bank fund that makes these interest-free loans.

Former U.S. Ambassador to China Winston Lord said these World Bank loans are "an indication of business as usual between China and the rest of the world, a testimony to China's success in having the world overlook what it's doing to its people."

How did it happen?

The story of Beijing's successful run on the World Bank is a tale of persistence and diplomatic skill (by China), of avarice and mercantilism (in Western Europe and Japan) and of intrigue (by the Bush Administration).

An investigation by The Times shows that Japanese, French, German and Italian companies pressed their governments to make it possible for China to get World Bank loans again. Beijing could then use the funds to buy those countries' power plants, dams, helicopters and other equipment.