When Liu Chuanzhi is asked to pose for the photographer, the founder and chairman of Lenovo becomes impatient. The 66-year-old stiffens as an aide jumps forward to smooth his hair ruffled by the evening breeze on the hotel balcony. Back inside, he shoos the photographer out, pulls off his red tie and sits down at the dinner table.

It was Mr Liu’s inability to stand on the sidelines that forced him to intervene 18 months ago after Lenovo, shaken by the financial crisis, had racked up a $97m loss in the fourth quarter of 2008. At an age when others retire, Mr Liu returned to the helm of the PC maker he founded 26 years ago, now the fourth-largest in the world.

As the waiters tiptoe around him in the wood-panelled private dining room at the Park Hyatt hotel in Beijing’s central business district, Mr Liu explains that his passion for the business stems from the fact that, due to China’s stormy history, he so nearly missed the chance to become an entrepreneur.