Instead of lunch with Warren Buffett, Chinese entrepreneur Justin Sun eats humble pie

Justin Sun was supposed to be having lunch with Warren Buffett, the legendary American investor, in San Francisco on Thursday. Instead, the Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur canceled the meal, for which he had paid $4.6 million, and was apologizing for his “excessive self-promotion.”

The chain of events underscores both China’s growing economic clout and its authorities’ ability to exert control over supposedly independent business people.

“The bidding stemmed from my admiration for Mr. Buffett and my commitment to philanthropy. . . and of course, my self-interest and the exterior motive of advocating for the blockchain industry,” Sun said in a long-form open letter posted Thursday on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, explaining why he paid millions in an auction to dine with the Oracle of Omaha.

“But my immaturity, hubris, blundering, and neglect of public responsibilities have produced unexpected consequences totally contrary to my original intentions. . . and triggered concerns from regulatory authorities,” he wrote.

Every year, Buffett raises money for the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco-based charity that aids the poor and homeless, by offering to have lunch with the highest bidder. 

Sun, a 28-year-old who founded the cryptocurrency company Tron, won the auction in June with his record bid. Tron had an estimated market value of $10.2 billion earlier this year.

He planned to take four other cryptocurrency business leaders with him in an effort to persuade Buffett, who once described bitcoin as “rat poison squared,” of the digital assets’ merits.

“Buffett’s understanding of Bitcoin is stuck in 2009. Now it’s 2019,” Sun told the Global Times, a nationalist tabloid with close ties to the Communist Party of China, in June, shortly after winning the auction. “My initial objective is to convince Buffett on the Bitcoin and blockchain industry instead of creating hype.”

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