The Chinese Buffett's Next Move: My Take on Duan Yongping's 100 Billion Investment Strategy

If I had 100 billion yuan sitting in my pocket, I'd probably panic. But for Duan Yongping, it's just another day at the office. This low-profile investment tycoon, who rarely shows his face in public, has become a market whisperer whose every move sends ripples through the investment world. His recent cryptic comments on Xueqiu have got everyone buzzing, myself included.

I've been watching Duan's moves for years, and let me tell you - when he quietly announced "Today I bought Tencent and also bought Moutai," it wasn't just casual conversation. It was a damn market signal that sent investors scrambling.

Tencent's been on a wild ride lately - up 40.6% in 2024, then tanking 11.46% in the first five trading days of 2025. Six straight days of decline! But the day Duan stepped in? The bleeding stopped. Coincidence? I think not. The stock stabilized and began climbing again. Same story with Moutai - six consecutive declines until Duan threw his weight behind it.

What fascinates me about Duan isn't just his investment prowess but his unlikely origin story. This "Chinese Buffett" was actually a self-described "poor student" who scored only 80-ish points in his first college entrance exams. Growing up in Jinggangshan fishing and climbing trees rather than studying, he wasn't exactly marked for greatness.

But here's what gets me - his turnaround wasn't just impressive; it was transformative. From a kid who couldn't even make a phone call to becoming a phone manufacturing magnate! Breaking his iron rice bowl job at the Beijing Electronic Tube Factory (a cushy 46 yuan monthly salary!) to pursue greater ambitions took serious guts.

The watershed moment came when he dropped $620,000 for lunch with Warren Buffett in 2006 - making him the first Chinese to win this privilege. What emerged was Duan's now-famous "three no principles": no shorting, no borrowing, and no touching what you don't understand.

The first principle came from his painful $200 million loss shorting Baidu. Ouch! I would've thrown in the towel after that disaster, but Duan learned and adapted. His aversion to borrowing money seems particularly wise when you look at the spectacular flameouts of overleveraged tycoons like Jia Yueting and Xu Jiayin.

While you won't find Duan on the Forbes Top 100, his reported net worth of 180 billion yuan would rank him above both Li Ka-shing and Jack Ma. His U.S. holdings alone total around $14.5 billion, with a massive 79.54% allocated to Apple. That early 2011 Apple investment at $5.78 per share? A 60-fold return. I'm kicking myself for not following his lead back then.

What strikes me as odd is that despite his mentorship of Huang Zheng (Pinduoduo's founder), he doesn't hold any PDD stock. When PDD surpassed Alibaba in market cap, Duan simply said he "didn't understand" it - and he sticks religiously to avoiding what he doesn't understand.

So where's Duan parking his billions in 2025? Has he secretly bought into Bitcoin alongside his Tencent and Moutai positions? That's the billion-yuan question everyone's asking. Whatever his next move, one thing's certain - thousands of investors will follow his lead, creating market waves simply through his quiet, methodical approach to wealth building.