On July 9, hundreds of Chinese investors and start-up entrepreneurs flocked to an annual conference held by Legend Holdings. They braved the oppressive heat of the Beijing summer not simply because they wanted to network or listen to the various speakers imparting nuggets of wisdom. They also came to pay their respects to the most important man in the room Liu Chuanzhi, the 72-year-old chairman of the Chinese investment conglomerate.
Liu is widely regarded as an icon of entrepreneurial capitalism in modern China and the “godfather” of its information technology industry. He is best known as the founder of Lenovo, now the world’s biggest maker of personal...