“At that time [early 2015] we felt like the People’s Liberation Army, with basic rifles, and we were bombed by airplanes and missiles,” Cheng Wei, the founder and CEO of ride-hailing startup Didi, said about Uber’s advantage in China’s private car-hailing market. “They had some really advanced weapons.” In a rare interview, Wei spoke to Bloomberg Businessweek about his journey from obscurity to China business hero.