The deal had the imprint of a Hong Kong billionaire nicknamed “Superman” for his empire building. One of the tycoon’s companies, which for years has run two ports on the Panama Canal, had been thrust into a broader showdown between China and the United States.

这笔交易带有一位香港亿万富翁的印记，他因建立了自己庞大的商业帝国而被称为“超人”。这位大亨的一家公司多年来一直经营着巴拿马运河上的两个港口，如今被卷入了中美之间更广泛的对决之中。

So the billionaire, Li Ka-shing, got out of the firing line by notching a $19 billion deal to sell the business to a group of deep-pocketed American investors.

因此，这位亿万富翁李嘉诚以190亿美元的价格将自己的业务出售给一群财力雄厚的美国投资者，从而远离了火线。

Or so it seemed.

至少看起来是这样。

China’s leaders are now threatening to stop Mr. Li and the company he controls, CK Hutchison, from seeing the deal through, accusing the conglomerate of betraying Beijing.

中国领导人现在威胁要阻止李嘉诚和他控制的长江和记实业有限公司完成这笔交易，指责这家企业集团背叛了北京。

The face-off tests how far Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, is willing to go to exercise his control over business in Hong Kong.

这场对峙考验着中国最高领导人习近平在对香港商业领域行使管控权方面愿意走多远。

A former British colony, Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 with Beijing’s promise it would mostly leave the city to govern itself, allowing it to remain a bridge to China but keep a system of freewheeling capitalism. Mr. Li, as a Chinese entrepreneur who tapped investors in the West to build an empire that included property, shipping and telecommunications, embodied that distinction.

香港曾是英国殖民地，于1997年回归中国，北京承诺让香港拥有相当程度的自治，使其得以继续作为通往中国的桥梁，但保留自由放任的资本主义制度。作为一名华人企业家，李嘉诚利用西方投资建立了一个包括房地产、航运和电信在内的帝国，正是这种独特模式的体现。

巴拿马运河上的巴尔博亚港。

Beijing’s potential intervention in the port deal between CK Hutchison and a group led by BlackRock now endangers the separation, prominent financiers and business leaders in Hong Kong said. It could also destroy Mr. Xi’s golden goose at a critical moment for China’s economy.

香港知名金融家和商界领袖表示，北京对长江和记实业与贝莱德牵头的集团之间港口交易的潜在干预如今危及到了这种区别。这还可能在中国经济的关键时刻毁掉习近平的摇钱树。

After recording losses in four of the past five years, Hong Kong’s stock market is on fire — a sign of enthusiasm for China’s economy. Chinese companies are choosing Hong Kong over London or New York to list their shares. It offers Mr. Xi a bragging point: Since President Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, the S&P 500 has fallen about 5 percent while Hong Kong’s stock market is up more than 20 percent.

香港股市在过去五年中有四年录得亏损，现在却火爆起来——这是投资者对中国经济热情高涨的迹象。中国公司纷纷选择在香港上市，而不是伦敦或纽约。这为习近平提供了炫耀的资本：自特朗普总统1月20日就职以来，标准普尔500指数下跌了约5%，香港股市却上涨了20%以上。

Lawyers and regulatory experts generally believe that the authorities in Hong Kong or Beijing will be reluctant to stop the deal — and it is not clear that there is much they can do. But the mere possibility has put Hong Kong on edge. Beijing and its proxies in the media have kept up a near-daily drumbeat of criticism.

律师和监管专家普遍认为，香港或北京相关当局在出手阻止这笔交易上有所顾虑，而且目前也不清楚它们能做些什么。但仅仅是阻止交易的可能性就已经让香港坐立不安。北京及其在媒体上的代理人几乎每天都在对这项交易大肆批评。

Commentaries last week in Ta Kung Pao, a newspaper owned by the Chinese government, called the agreement between CK Hutchison and BlackRock “profit seeking and unrighteous” and a matter of “national security.” The Beijing government agency that overseas Hong Kong policy reposted the comments on its website. On Tuesday, Hong Kong’s top leader, John Lee, piled on to say the deal required “serious attention.”

中国官方报纸《大公报》上周发表评论称，长江和记实业与贝莱德之间的协议“唯利是图，见利忘义”，涉及“国家利益，民族大义”。负责香港政策的港澳办在官网上转发了这些评论。本周二，香港最高领导人李家超也发表评论，称该协议“值得重视”。

Hu Xijin, a former editor of the Communist Party tabloid Global Times, said CK Hutchison “first needs to be calm and coordinate with China’s national interests.”

《环球时报》的前主编胡锡进说，希望长江和记“既来之则安之……与强大祖国的利益协调一致”。

Any attempt by Hong Kong or Beijing to stop the deal would be extraordinary. Chinese companies must often seek permission from regulators to move their money out of mainland China. CK Hutchison operates ports worldwide, including in China, but none of the 43 ports that are part of the BlackRock deal are in China. CK Hutchison’s shares are not listed in mainland China.

香港或北京阻止这笔交易的任何尝试都将是非同寻常的。中国企业往往必须获得监管机构的许可，才能将资金转移出中国大陆。长江和记在世界各地运营港口，包括在中国，但贝莱德交易涉及的43个港口中，没有一个在中国。长江和记的股票并未在中国大陆上市。

CK Hutchison declined to comment. BlackRock did not respond to a request for comment.

长江和记拒绝置评。贝莱德没有回应置评请求。

Victor Li, the chairman of CK Hutchison (and son of Li Ka-shing), said on Thursday in a statement accompanying an earnings release that the environment for CK Hutchison’s businesses could be “both volatile and unpredictable” this year.

李嘉诚之子、长江和记主席李泽钜周四在一份财报附带声明中表示，今年长江和记的业务环境可能“动荡而又不可预测”。

The scorn and warnings heaped on CK Hutchison are reminiscent of “Cultural Revolution-style criticism” that will scare off foreign investors, said Lew Mong-hung, a former Chinese political adviser.

前中国政治问题顾问刘梦熊表示，对长江和记的轻蔑和警告让人想起“文革式的批评”，会吓跑外国投资者。

在中美就巴拿马运河港口问题对峙之际，李嘉诚完成了一项价值190亿美元的交易，将其业务出售给主要投资者。

“Who would dare to come to Hong Kong?” said Mr. Lew, a former finance professional. “If you don’t obey, don’t want to make a political sacrifice and don’t want to be a political tool, you will be criticized and persecuted. Who will come to invest?”

“谁还敢来香港？”曾是金融专业人士的刘梦熊说。“如果不服从，不作牺牲品，不作政治工具，就要批斗你、整你。谁还会来投资呢？”

Chan King Cheung, a professor of media ethics at Hong Kong Baptist University and a former chief editor of the Hong Kong Economic Journal, wrote in a Hong Kong newspaper this week that the increasing intervention by Beijing in the city’s business community — through comments and visits made by Chinese officials to pressure business leaders to be patriotic — was a sign that it was getting harder to detach Hong Kong companies from Chinese politics.

香港浸会大学媒体伦理教授、《信报财经新闻》前主编陈景祥本周在一份香港报纸上写道，北京方面对香港商界的干预越来越多——通过中国官员的言论和访问向商界领袖施压，要求他们爱国——这表明香港公司越来越难以同中国的政治分离。

The attention Beijing has put on the Panama Canal deal was just another example that “‘great’ entrepreneurs must be patriots,” Mr. Chan wrote. “It has been proven that the days when Hong Kong companies considered issues purely based on economic or commercial interests are over,” he added.

陈景祥写道，北京对巴拿马运河交易的关注只是“‘伟大’的企业家必须是爱国者”的又一个例子。他还写道：“事实证明，香港公司纯从经济效益或商业角度考量问题的日子已经过去。”

The concern among business leaders cuts to the heart of the question facing Hong Kong: Are its companies free to make their own business decisions, or must they consider China’s broader national interests as do mainland Chinese firms?

商界领袖的担忧直指香港面临的核心问题：香港公司是否可以自由做出自己的商业决策，还是必须像内地企业那样考虑中国更广泛的国家利益？

For many, the answer will determine whether Hong Kong can still operate separately from the rest of China. Hong Kong’s autonomy in free speech and civil society has already been eroded after the shutdown of local media outlets; the arrest of Jimmy Lai, a Hong Kong newspaper publisher; and the arrests and trials of dozens of pro-democracy leaders.

对很多人来说，这个答案将决定香港是否仍能与中国其他地区分开运作。在香港本地媒体机构被关闭、报纸出版人黎智英遭逮捕，以及数十名民主运动领袖遭到逮捕和审判之后，香港在言论自由和公民社会方面的自主权已经受到侵蚀。

“It’s one thing to go after Jimmy Lai and Apple Daily, but quite another to go after ‘Superman’ KS Li and his companies, the most successful international business H.K. has ever produced,” said Mark L. Clifford, a former board member at Mr. Lai’s Next Digital and president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong.

“打击黎智英和《苹果日报》是一回事，但打击‘超人’李嘉诚和他的公司——香港有史以来最成功的国际企业——则是另一回事，”祈福德(Mark L. Clifford)说，他是黎智英壹传媒的前董事会成员，也是香港自由委员会基金会主席。

To Beijing and its supporters, the Trump administration has already politicized business transactions, thwarting investment and imposing tariffs in the name of national security. In an opinion article, Mr. Hu, the former Chinese tabloid editor, argued that former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. also did this when his administration stopped a deal between Japan’s Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel.

对北京及其支持者来说，特朗普政府将商业交易政治化，阻挠投资，并以国家安全的名义征收关税。胡锡进在评论文章中指出，拜登前总统在其政府阻止日本新日铁和美国钢铁公司之间的交易时也这么做过。

香港媒体大亨黎智英是著名的中国政府批评者，自2020年以来一直被监禁。

Beijing has reason to be concerned, he added. The Trump administration “wants to use the ports to charge extra fees to Chinese ships arriving at the port and hit China’s shipbuilding and shipping industries.”

他还称，北京方面有理由感到担忧。特朗普政府“要在美国港口对所有到岸的中国船只加收额外费用，打击中国航运和造船业”。

Others argued that China’s condemnation of CK Hutchison for supposedly not acting in China’s national interests has effectively ratified Mr. Trump’s original claim that the company was controlled by China.

也有人认为，中国谴责长江和记所谓的不符合中国国家利益的行为，实际上证实了特朗普最初关于该公司受中国控制的说法。

“China’s reaction to the deal implicitly concedes the Trump administration’s point that control of major ports, here just the Panama Canal, constitutes a security threat to the United States,” said Lester Ross, the partner in charge of the Beijing office of the law firm Wilmer Hale.

“中国对该交易的反应默认了特朗普政府的观点，即控制主要港口——这里仅指巴拿马运河——对美国构成了安全威胁，”威尔默黑尔律师事务所北京办事处主管合伙人莱斯特·罗斯说。

“It may also bring the Hong Kong business community as a whole even more tightly under Beijing’s thumb.”

“这也可能使整个香港商界受到北京更紧密的控制。”