Who Is China’s Warren Buffett?

As Warren Buffett, now 94, prepares to step away from the helm of Berkshire Hathaway after more than half a century, the investment world is not just reflecting on his legacy — it’s also looking for his philosophical heirs. In the United States, names like Greg Abel and Todd Combs are mentioned as successors within the firm. But in China, the search for a “Chinese Buffett” has been quietly answered by one man: Duan Yongping.

A legend in both business and investing, Duan’s story is far from conventional. He built iconic consumer brands like Little Tyrant and BBK Electronics, only to step away from day-to-day operations at the height of his success. Relocating to the U.S. in the early 2000s, he quietly transformed himself into one of the most respected value investors in the Chinese-speaking world. Today, he is both a mentor and a myth among China’s retail investors — not for flashy trades, but for a philosophy rooted in long-term thinking, simplicity, and discipline.

From Business Builder to Value Investor

Duan’s rise began in the early 1990s when he took over a failing electronics factory in Guangdong. There, he launched a line of affordable home gaming consoles under the brand Xiao Ba Wang (“Little Tyrant”) — a locally adapted version of the popular Japanese Famicom system. By securing a TV ad campaign starring Jackie Chan and pricing the product well below international competitors, Duan created an instant cultural phenomenon in China. By 1995, Little Tyrant commanded over 80% of China’s home gaming market and generated over RMB 1 billion ($120M+) in annual sales.

But even as the business soared, Duan grew disillusioned. The parent company refused his request to implement an employee equity program, and profits from Little Tyrant were being siphoned off to cover other failing subsidiaries. So, at the peak of the company’s success, Duan walked away.

In 1995, he founded BBK Electronics with a small group of loyal colleagues, many of whom would later go on to lead OPPO and vivo. To avoid direct competition with his former employer during a one-year non-compete period, Duan initially focused on overseas markets. Once that expired, he flooded China’s airwaves with memorable commercials — including one during China Central Television’s evening weather report, the most-watched time slot of the day. The brand “BBK” quickly became a household name, especially for educational electronics and audio products. Duan’s emphasis on branding, incentive alignment, and corporate culture (summed up by his core value: “benfen”, or integrity in one’s role) laid the foundation for OPPO and vivo’s eventual global success.

Then, at age 40 and with his empire thriving, Duan made another surprising move: he retired from operational business entirely and relocated to the U.S. to focus on his family — and a new passion: investing.

A Second Act in Investing

In 2002, shortly after settling in California, Duan made his first major investment: NetEase. At the time, the Chinese internet company was trading at just $0.80 per share, battered by the dot-com crash. But Duan, drawing on his early experience with gaming hardware, saw the company’s potential. He invested around $2 million for a 5% stake — and in less than two years, his investment had multiplied nearly 100-fold.

That was just the beginning. In 2006, Duan paid $620,000 to win a charity lunch with Warren Buffett — the first Chinese entrepreneur ever to do so. He brought along a young protégé: a then-unknown engineer named Colin Huang, who would later found Pinduoduo. Duan’s early mentorship and funding played a key role in Pinduoduo’s meteoric rise, and Huang has since publicly credited Duan’s guidance for many of his long-term strategic decisions.

Duan’s other major wins include early investments in Apple — made before Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway got involved — as well as a significant position in China’s liquor giant Kweichow Moutai. He also bought General Electric during the 2009 financial crisis, turning another massive profit. Across all of these, a common thread emerges: Duan buys when others panic, focuses only on businesses he understands, and holds with unwavering patience.

Philosophy: Common Sense Over Complexity

“Investing is really just common sense,” Duan once said. His core belief echoes Buffett’s — that buying stocks is buying businesses. He avoids complex financial engineering, ignores short-term market trends, and looks for businesses with clear models, strong “moats,” and pricing power.

A strong advocate of Charlie Munger’s “circle of competence” principle, Duan often reminds investors that it’s okay to pass on opportunities you don’t fully understand. “Most companies, I don’t understand,” he has said bluntly — a rare admission in a world full of overconfidence.

One of his most frequently quoted mantras is “Slow is fast.” In a market obsessed with speed and short-term returns, Duan believes that the best way to achieve long-term wealth is by moving deliberately and avoiding big mistakes. “If you just avoid doing stupid things, the money will come eventually,” he once said.

His emphasis on capital preservation also leads him to avoid leverage, derivatives, or short-selling. During his lunch with Buffett, Duan asked: “What’s the one thing an investor should never do?” Buffett’s reply: “Never invest in something you don’t understand, never borrow to invest, and never short stocks.” Duan took these words to heart, and they’ve served as the pillars of his investing philosophy ever since.

A Cult Hero in China’s Investing Community

In the West, Duan remains relatively unknown outside niche value investing circles. But in China, he enjoys a near-mythical status.

Under the pseudonym “大道无形我有型” (roughly translated: “The Great Way is formless, but I have style”), Duan is a prolific presence on China’s largest investing forum, Xueqiu (Snowball). With over a million followers, he answers questions daily — often with gentle wit, sometimes with sharp rebukes. Rather than giving stock tips, he guides users toward clearer thinking: “Would you still buy this company if the stock market closed for 10 years?” he once asked a trader obsessed with price targets.

His most devoted followers call him simply “Duanzong” (Chief Duan) or “Laoduan” (Old Duan), and treat his comments as a blend of Buffett-style wisdom and Zen-like philosophy. His quotes, like “Don’t be greedy, be correct,” or “You don’t have to be smart — you just have to be rational,” are widely shared across Chinese social media.