The question posed to Wen Han, founder of the electric truck maker Windrose Technology, was a simple one: Is it accurate to call the firm a Chinese company?

对电动卡车制造商苇渡科技的创始人韩文提出的问题很简单：称该公司为中国公司是否准确？

After some rambling, Mr. Han settled on an answer: “I would describe it as Chinese origin.”

闲谈几句之后，韩文确定了答案：“我会说它是源自中国的公司。”

There’s a reason it felt like a trick question: Windrose’s investors include an Australian property group, U.S. venture capital financiers and Chinese state-owned funds. It is now based in Belgium. But at its heart, Windrose packs China’s significant advantages in making electric vehicles.

这个问题听起来像是陷阱，这是有原因的：苇渡科技的投资者包括一家澳大利亚房地产集团、美国风险投资机构和中国国有基金。它现在的总部设在比利时。但从本质上讲，苇渡科技凝聚了中国在制造电动汽车方面的显著优势。

Mr. Han wants to use that edge to sell long-haul trucks globally. He is intent on taking his company public in New York, saying he plans to file the initial paperwork within the next month to raise up to at least $400 million.

韩文希望利用这一优势在全球范围内销售长途卡车。他打算让他的公司在纽约上市，他说他计划在下个月提交初步的文件，以期筹集至少4亿美元。

While the business proposition is simple, the execution is anything but — complicated by geopolitics, trade tensions and a surge of protectionism. Mr. Han is mindful of what he calls Windrose’s “Chineseness.”

虽然这个商业主张很简单，但执行起来却不然——地缘政治、贸易紧张局势和保护主义抬头使其变得复杂。韩文很注意他所称的苇渡科技的“中国性”。

Born in China’s coal country, Mr. Han, 34, grew up when Chinese globalization did not trigger the kind of political distrust in the United States that it does now. He attended Williams College in Massachusetts and worked at the American hedge fund Bridgewater Associates. His life has spanned both countries. Now, he is pushing for Windrose to do the same in a fracturing world.

现年34岁的韩文出生在中国的产煤区，在他成长的年代，中国的全球化还没有像现在这样在美国引发政治不信任。他曾就读于马萨诸塞州的威廉姆斯学院，并在美国对冲基金桥水公司工作。他的生活横跨这两个国家。现在，他正在推动苇渡科技在一个分崩离析的世界里做同样的事情。

“China will never be America’s best friend, not in our lifetimes,” he said. “However, China doesn’t have to be the enemy forever, and not everyone from China has to be the enemy.”

“在我们有生之年，中国永远不会成为美国最好的朋友，”他说。“但中国不必永远是敌人，也不是每个来自中国的人都必须是敌人。”

Windrose is looking to upend the trucking industry’s century-old reliance on diesel. It relies on China’s advanced electric vehicle supply chain of batteries and components, a byproduct of Beijing’s sizable government-led investments.

苇渡科技寻求颠覆百年来卡车运输业对柴油的依赖。它依靠中国先进的电动汽车电池和零部件供应链，这是中国政府主导的大规模投资的副产品。

苇渡科技受雄心的驱使多于经验，目前仅制造了30辆卡车，与到2027年制造10000辆卡车的目标相去甚远。监管方面的障碍意味着其车辆还在等待美国和欧洲的认证。卡车内部。

In addition to an office in Antwerp, Windrose is building a production plant in northern France. It has sites in Georgia and California to handle light assembly of trucks mostly manufactured in China. It is now choosing among Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Ohio for a factory to open in 2027.

除了在安特卫普的办事处外，苇渡科技正在法国北部建造一个工厂。该公司在佐治亚州和加利福尼亚州设有工厂，负责大部分在中国制造的轻型卡车的组装。目前，该公司正在亚利桑那州、佐治亚州、北卡罗来纳州和俄亥俄州选址，计划在2027年开设一家工厂。

It is forging ahead more on ambition than a proven track record. It has produced only about 40 trucks, a long way from its target of building 10,000 in 2027. It faces regulatory hurdles. Customers in America and Europe cannot yet buy its vehicles, which are waiting to get road-certified.

它的前进是凭着雄心壮志，而不是凭着已被证实的业绩。目前它只生产了大约40辆卡车，距离2027年生产1万辆的目标还有很长的路要走。它面临着监管障碍。美国和欧洲的客户还不能购买它的汽车，这些汽车还在等待上路认证。

In three years, Windrose has raised more than $300 million. While other fledgling truck makers have struggled to get production lines up and running, Windrose has surprised many in the industry with its speed in designing, developing and producing trucks. Mr. Han’s vehicles have been tested on long routes in the United States, Europe, China and Australia.

苇渡科技在三年里已经筹集了3亿多美元。当其他刚刚起步的卡车制造商还在为生产线的启动和运行而苦苦挣扎时，苇渡科技设计、开发和生产卡车的速度已令业内许多人感到惊讶。韩文的车辆已经在美国、欧洲、中国和澳大利亚的长途路线上进行了测试。

“I’m always telling him that he’s being too aggressive, but he keeps delivering, so now I have nothing to say,” Allen Zhu, managing director at GSR Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm and a Windrose investor.

硅谷风险投资公司金沙江创投主管合伙人、苇渡科技投资者朱啸虎说：“我总是告诉他，他太激进了，但他一直在兑现承诺，所以现在我无话可说。”

But, of course, Windrose is facing conditions that are unfriendly, if not outright hostile, to Chinese start-ups.

然而，苇渡科技面临的环境对中国初创企业并不友好，甚至可以说是充满敌意。

President Trump has imposed escalating tariffs on Chinese imports. In February, he ordered restrictions on Chinese investments in strategic sectors and sought to limit how Chinese firms list their shares on U.S. stock exchanges. As part of the decree, the White House specifically identified China as a “foreign adversary.”

特朗普总统对中国进口商品征收的关税不断升级。今年2月，他下令限制中国在战略行业的投资，并试图限制中国公司在美国证券交易所上市的方式。作为政令的一部分，白宫明确将中国列为“外国对手”。

And then there is Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, who has Mr. Trump’s ear. Tesla is one of Windrose’s main competitors with the capital, know-how and brand to challenge existing truck manufacturers.

此外还有跟特朗普过从甚密的特斯拉首席执行官埃隆·马斯克。特斯拉是苇渡科技的主要竞争对手之一，拥有挑战现有卡车制造商的资金、技术和品牌。

Whether or not Mr. Han succeeds in his American endeavor, his story speaks to the inexorable economic impulses that connect China and the United States despite the political forces dividing the countries.

无论韩文在美国的努力是否成功，他的故事都说明，尽管两国之间存在着政治力量的分歧，但不可阻挡的经济动力将两国联系在一起。

Mr. Han, the only child of two doctors, competed in national English-speaking competitions as a student. He noticed that many top participants had lived abroad.

韩文是独子，父母都是医生，学生时代曾参加过全国英语比赛。他注意到，许多名列前茅的参赛者曾在国外生活过。

“So I told my mother,” he said, that “I, too, would like to gain such an unfair advantage.”

“所以我告诉我妈妈，”他说，“我也想获得这样不公平的优势。”

At 16, he left China to attend high school near San Diego. After college, he worked at Bridgewater. He worked in venture capital after Stanford Business School. Mr. Han joined Plus, a Silicon Valley start-up for self-driving trucks with operations in China and the United States, and eventually became its chief strategy and financial officer.

16岁时，他离开中国，在圣地亚哥附近上高中。大学毕业后，他在桥水公司工作。从斯坦福商学院毕业后，他从事风险投资工作。韩文后来加入硅谷的自动驾驶卡车初创公司Plus，在中国和美国都有业务，最终成为了该公司的首席战略和财务官。

He discovered the perils of becoming trapped between Washington and Beijing. Mr. Han said he had been headed toward a $20 million payday from Plus’s initial public offering until China’s crackdown on the ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing put a freeze on his company’s listing plans. Plus eventually split its Chinese operation from the rest of its global portfolio.

他发现了夹在华盛顿和北京之间的危险。韩文说，Plus的首次公开募股本来可以给他带来2000万美元的收入，但中国对叫车公司滴滴出行的打击冻结了该公司的上市计划。Plus最终将中国业务从其全球投资组合中剥离出来。

“I learned how to deal with geopolitical sensitivities,” Mr. Han said.

“我学会了如何处理地缘政治的敏感性，”韩文说。

He started Windrose in 2022. At the time, investors were wary of electric vehicle companies after some high-profile failures. Battery prices had soared from lithium carbonate shortages, heaping additional pressure on profitability.

他于2022年创办了苇渡科技。当时，在一些引人注目的失败之后，投资者对电动汽车公司持谨慎态度。电池价格因碳酸锂短缺而飙升，给盈利能力带来了额外压力。

短短三年里，苇渡科技筹集了3亿多美元，并迅速从设计转向生产，超越了陷入困境的竞争对手。韩文的目标是在全球范围内销售长途卡车，并让苇渡科技在纽约上市。

Mr. Han took a contrarian view. The stigma around the sector meant there were fewer new competitors. He thought lithium prices had peaked. He was right about both, but more than that, he knew that China’s supply chain for electric vehicles was far ahead of the rest of the world.

韩文持相反的观点。该行业的污名意味着新的竞争对手减少了。他认为锂的价格已经见顶。他在这两点上都是对的，但更重要的是，他知道中国的电动汽车供应链远远领先于世界其他地区。

Windrose did not invent something new. Tesla and Nikola had announced plans for electric trucks years earlier, but both companies were setting up supply chains in the United States, not China. Nikola declared bankruptcy in February. Tesla is running years behind production targets for its truck, the Semi.

苇渡科技并没有发明什么新东西。特斯拉和尼古拉早在几年前就宣布了电动卡车的计划，但两家公司都在美国而不是中国建立了供应链。尼古拉今年2月宣布破产。特斯拉的卡车Semi的生产目标已经落后多年。

Mr. Han faced some resistance when raising money in the United States. Anything Chinese is considered “taboo,” he said. Someone suggested that he say he was Chinese American, not Chinese.

韩文在美国筹集资金时遇到了一些阻力。他说，任何中国的东西都被认为是“禁忌”。有人建议他说他是华裔美国人，而不是中国人。

Windrose is eager to get trucks to customers before Tesla, which first demonstrated its prototype Semi in 2017. Tesla said last year that it aimed to reach mass production — an annual capacity of 50,000 trucks — at its facility in Nevada by the end of 2026. Tesla, which did not respond to a request for comment, initially said it would begin deliveries in 2019.

苇渡科技渴望在特斯拉之前向客户提供卡车，特斯拉在2017年首次展示了Semi原型车。特斯拉去年表示，它的目标是在2026年底之前在内华达州的工厂实现量产——年产5万辆卡车。特斯拉没有回应置评请求，公司最初曾表示将于2019年开始交付。

Mr. Han speaks of Mr. Musk with reverence. He said that Mr. Musk had done more for relations with China than most diplomats and that Windrose had benefited from the Chinese supply chain that rose up to support Tesla.

谈起马斯克，韩文充满敬意。他说，马斯克为中美关系所做的贡献比大多数外交官都要多，苇渡科技也从支持特斯拉的中国供应链中受益。

He said, however, that building electric trucks was not a priority for Mr. Musk. He started naming his various roles.

不过，他说，制造电动卡车并不是马斯克的首要任务。他开始说出马斯克扮演的各种角色。

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “And being best friends with Donald Trump.”

“哦，对，”他说。“还有唐纳德·特朗普最好的朋友。”

Mr. Han is no less desperate for the president’s attention. He has already decided to build a factory in a “very red” state, but he sent a direct plea to Mr. Trump last month on Truth Social.

韩文同样渴望得到总统的关注。他已经决定在一个“非常红”的州建一家工厂，但他上个月在Truth Social上直接向特朗普发出了请求。

“Mr. President,” Mr. Han wrote. “We heard you and we would like to announce our plans to build Windrose EV truck’s first manufacturing facility in the United States! Please help find us the right community to invest in!”

“总统先生，”韩文写道。“我们听到了你的声音，我们想宣布我们计划在美国建立苇渡科技电动卡车的第一家制造工厂！请帮助我们找到合适的社区进行投资！”

韩文希望苇渡科技被视为一家全球性公司而不是中国的代表性企业，并与共产党保持距离。苇渡科技的目标是借助中国先进的电动汽车供应链打破卡车运输对柴油的依赖，这一供应链得益于政府的巨额投资。

Mr. Han has not heard back.

韩文没有收到回复。