General Motors was a pioneer in China, where for a quarter-century the company drew enormous profits and vied with Germany’s Volkswagen as the top seller of cars.

通用汽车曾是中国市场的先驱，在长达四分之一个世纪的时间里，该公司在中国获得了巨额利润，并与德国大众争夺汽车销量第一的宝座。

Those days are over.

那些日子已经过去了。

G.M.’s sales in China have entered a death spiral, falling 42.5 percent in the first 11 months of this year. The company now ranks 16th by sales. The dizzying collapse of its China business forced G.M. to take a roughly $5 billion charge against profits this month.

通用汽车在中国的销量已陷入“死亡螺旋”，今年前11个月的销量下降了42.5%。该公司目前销量排名第16位。中国业务的急剧崩溃迫使通用汽车本月冲减了约50亿美元的利润。

It was a drastic comedown for the company, which started in China in 1996 with an initial investment of $350 million and went on to build a network of factories, churning out vehicles and sending billions in profits to its headquarters in Detroit.

这对该公司来说是一次重大挫折，通用汽车于1996年进入中国，初始投资为3.5亿美元，后来建立了一系列工厂，大量生产汽车，为位于底特律的总部带来了数十亿美元的利润。

G.M.’s early China executives were highly responsive to the unique characteristics of the market. They built bulky minivans with lots of sparkling chrome to appeal to leaders of the state-owned companies that were big customers. They sold Buicks, a faded brand in the United States that still had cachet in China. For rural farmers, G.M. offered vans and pickup trucks with flimsy seats and no air-conditioning that cost only $5,000.

通用汽车早期的中国高管对中国市场的独特性反应敏锐。他们制造了体积庞大、有许多闪亮镀铬装饰的商务车，以吸引国企领导人这样的大客户。他们销售别克——一个在美国已逐渐衰弱、但在中国仍有声望的品牌。对于农村的农民，通用汽车提供座椅简陋、没有空调的厢式货车和皮卡，售价仅5000美元。

In many ways, the story of G.M. in China tracks the experience of all foreign automakers in what is now the world’s largest car market.

从很多方面来看，通用汽车在中国的故事都体现了外国汽车制造商在中国这个目前全球最大汽车市场的经历。

China allowed foreign carmakers like G.M. into the country only as part of a publicly stated, long-term policy to gain technology and build its own globally competitive industry. Government leaders were also intent early on to shift away from cars that needed gasoline, which China mostly imports, and toward electric cars powered by energy sources at home like coal, solar and wind.

中国允许通用汽车等外国车企进入中国市场仅仅是作为一项公开宣布的长期政策的一部分，这项政策旨在获取技术，并为中国自身打造具有全球竞争力的汽车产业。政府领导人也早就打算从汽油驱动的汽车——中国大部分汽油车都依赖进口——转向使用煤炭、太阳能和风能等本土能源驱动的电动汽车。

G.M. executives foresaw China’s strength, particularly in electric cars. “China is well positioned to lead in this,” David Tulauskas, an early G.M. director of China government policy, said in a 2009 interview.

通用汽车高管预见到了中国的实力，尤其是在电动汽车领域。“中国完全有能力引领这一领域。”通用汽车前中国政府政策总监大卫·图劳斯卡斯在2009年的一次采访中表示。

But after years of success, G.M. has found it increasingly difficult to compete with Chinese rivals or adapt to the rise of electric cars.

但在多年的成功过后，通用汽车发现与中国对手竞争或适应电动汽车的兴起变得越来越困难。

2005年，潜在买家在中国柳州五菱工厂附近的一家经销店里查看一辆价格低廉的五菱商务车。通用汽车在三年前投资了五菱。

Government policies that forced G.M. into joint ventures with Chinese companies meant that G.M. ended up teaching much of what it knew about car manufacturing to local rivals that now outsell it.

中国政府的政策要求通用汽车与中国公司建立合资企业，这意味着通用汽车最终将其所掌握的大部分汽车制造知识传授给了当地的竞争对手，而这些对手现在的汽车销量超过了通用汽车。

Since 2008, Beijing has collected taxes totaling more than 100 percent on large, imported cars and sport utility vehicles. The taxes are so high that G.M. does not even try to import some models, like the Cadillac Escalade. That full-size S.U.V. starts at $87,595 in the United States but costs $186,000 including tax in China, when purchased through an import agent.

自2008年以来，北京对大型进口汽车和SUV征收的税款总额超过100%。如此高的税费导致通用汽车甚至放弃了进口某些车型，比如凯迪拉克凯雷德。这款全尺寸SUV在美国的售价为87595美元起，但在中国，如果通过进口代理商购买，含税价格为18.6万美元。

Electric cars made in China face only a 13 percent tax.

而中国生产的电动汽车仅需缴纳13%的税。

In addition to wielding tax policy at foreign carmakers, Beijing limited or blocked government subsidies for cars built by foreign companies. Partly as a result, G.M. has not competed effectively in battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid cars. These models together accounted for 52.3 percent of the Chinese market in November, the China Passenger Car Association announced last week. That was up from 32.8 percent in January.

除了对外国汽车制造商实施税收政策外，北京还限制或阻止政府对外资汽车进行补贴。这部分导致了通用汽车在纯电动汽车和插电式混合动力汽车领域未能有效竞争。中国乘用车市场信息联席会上周宣布，今年11月，这些车型合计占据中国市场的52.3%。而1月份这一比例为32.8%。

These fast-growing categories account for less than 20 percent of G.M. sales this year — while its sales of gasoline-powered cars have halved.

在通用汽车今年销售的汽车中，这些快速增长的类别仅占不到20%，而其汽油动力汽车的销量下降了一半。

The Chinese market transformed much faster than anyone expected. The government’s target in 2017 was for one in five cars sold in 2025 not to run on gasoline or diesel.

中国市场的转型速度比任何人预期的都要快得多。政府在2017年设定的目标是，到2025年，每售出五辆汽车中就有一辆不使用汽油或柴油。

G.M. declined to make any executives available for interviews for this article. The company provided a statement expressing optimism that its main operations in China, a joint venture with the state-owned SAIC Motor of Shanghai that makes Chevrolets, Buicks and Cadillacs, would return to health.

通用汽车拒绝安排任何高管接受本文的采访。该公司提供了一份声明，对其在中国的主要业务——与生产雪佛兰、别克和凯迪拉克的国有上海汽车集团有限公司的合资企业——将恢复至健康水平表示乐观。

“G.M. is working closer than ever with our joint-venture partner SAIC to restore the business in China to make it profitable and sustainable,” the company said. SAIC did not respond to requests for comment.

“通用汽车正与合资伙伴上汽集团进行前所未有的密切合作，以恢复其在华业务，使其实现盈利和可持续发展，”通用汽车表示。上汽集团没有回应置评请求。

五菱合资企业位于中国南部广西柳州的总部，摄于1月。

The architect of G.M.’s early successes was Philip F. Murtaugh, an obscure middle manager who had grown up on an Ohio farm. He went straight from high school in 1973 to the General Motors Institute, a company-sponsored college in Flint, Mich., where students worked while also taking classes. Mr. Murtaugh toiled in a factory that stamped car body parts.

通用汽车早期成功的缔造者是墨斐(Philip F. Murtaugh)，他是一位名不见经传的中层经理，在俄亥俄州的一个农场长大。1973年，墨斐高中毕业后直接进入通用汽车学院，这是一所由该公司资助的学院，位于密歇根州弗林特，学生在那里边工作边学习。墨斐在一家冲压汽车车身部件的工厂里苦干多年。

Working up the ranks, Mr. Murtaugh, who spoke no Chinese, was given a crucial role on the team that negotiated G.M.’s joint venture with SAIC. While the rest of the team went back to the United States, Mr. Murtaugh stayed in Shanghai to run the new business.

随着职位的提升，不会说中文的墨斐在通用汽车与上汽集团合资谈判团队中担任了重要角色。团队其他成员都回了美国，墨斐则留在上海管理新业务。

China’s car market was tiny — 400,000 cars were sold in 1998. Today that number is 27 million.

中国当时的汽车市场很小——1998年仅销售了40万辆汽车。如今，这个数字已经达到2700万辆。

One early win for the joint venture was the Buick GL8 luxury minivan for corporate fleets. Introduced in 1999, it was designed to maximize interior space but was just small enough to avoid being categorized as a commercial vehicle and tagged with a yellow sticker on a fender. A quarter-century later, luxury-apartment parking lots in Beijing and Shanghai still have many of the latest GL8s.

合资公司早期的一个明星产品是别克GL8豪华商务车，该车专为企业车队打造。这款车于1999年推出，设计旨在最大限度地利用车内空间，但车身又足够小，不至于被划定为商用车并在挡泥板上被贴上黄色标贴。四分之一个世纪过去了，北京和上海的豪华公寓停车场内仍然停放着许多最新款的GL8。

1999年，在上海通用汽车工厂推出新款别克GL8商务车时，现场来宾试驾这款车。2006年北京车展开幕日，在通用汽车展台，参观者正在观看一台摆放在别克君越轿车旁的发动机。

Next came the Buick LaCrosse sedan. In the early 2000s, Chinese consumers developed a growing taste for car ownership. G.M. executives noticed that many of these buyers were hiring drivers and riding in the back seat. Collaborating with SAIC, G.M. designed a version of the LaCrosse with extra legroom for rear-seat passengers.

接下来是别克君越轿车。21世纪初期，中国消费者对买车的兴趣与日俱增。通用汽车高管注意到，许多买车的人会聘请专职司机，自己坐在后座。通用汽车与上汽集团合作设计了一款君越车型，为后座乘客提供了更大的腿部空间。

Rival executives watched the joint venture’s success and fumed. “I struggled with that, because I couldn’t persuade people in Detroit, in Auburn Hills, to pay attention to the back seat,” said Bill Russo, the top executive in China then for Chrysler, which had its headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich.

竞争对手的高管看到通用和上汽合资企业的成功后十分恼火。“这让我很为难，因为我无法说服底特律、奥本山的人们把注意力放在后座上，”当时克莱斯勒公司中国区高管比尔·鲁索说，克莱斯勒总部位于密歇根州奥本山。

Introduced in February 2006, the special LaCrosse minted fortunes for G.M. in China. A year later, as Chinese motorists demanded fuel economy and new technology, the joint venture introduced a gasoline-electric hybrid version of the LaCrosse.

2006年2月推出的君越特别版为通用汽车在中国创造了巨大的财富。一年后，随着中国驾车者对省油和新技术的需求，通用和上汽合资公司推出了君越的油电混合动力版。

Mr. Murtaugh arranged in 2002 for G.M. to pay just $31 million to buy a 34 percent stake in Wuling, an obscure Chinese manufacturer in the mountains of southwestern China. Wuling made spartan, low-price vans. G.M.’s top executives in Detroit were initially skeptical of investments in economy cars. They later raised the company’s stake in Wuling to 44 percent after the utilitarian vehicles proved popular in rural China.

2002年，墨斐安排通用汽车仅以3100万美元就收购了五菱汽车34%的股份，当时五菱是位于中国西南山区一家名不见经传的汽车制造商，主要生产简单、低价的厢式车。起初，通用汽车在底特律的高管对投资经济型轿车持怀疑态度，但随着这些实用型车辆在中国农村市场的受欢迎程度提高，这些高管后来将通用汽车在五菱的持股比例提高至44%。

But shortly before the first LaCrosse went on sale in China, and as Wuling’s potential was only starting to become clear, Mr. Murtaugh was out of a job. His fast-growing and highly autonomous empire 7,000 miles from G.M. headquarters was earning close to $2 million a day by 2005. But the company’s North American operations were struggling, losing about $10 million a day.

然而，就在首款君越轿车即将在中国上市、五菱的潜力才刚刚显现时，墨斐却没了工作。2005年，在距离通用汽车总部1.1万公里的地方，墨斐快速成长且高度自动化的帝国每天收入近200万美元，通用的北美业务却每天亏损约1000万美元。

G.M. leaders in Michigan decided to seek greater economies from large-scale production, the company’s century-old formula for success. They integrated the China joint venture’s car designs, procurement and other units into respective divisions in Detroit.

身在密歇根州的通用汽车领导层决定通过大规模生产寻求更高的经济效益，这也是公司沿用百年的成功秘诀。他们将中国合资企业的汽车设计、采购和其他部门整合进了底特律的相关部门中。

Mr. Murtaugh lost his independence and most of his authority, and resigned in protest. Unemployed at 49 for the first time in his life, he left Shanghai for a home in Kentucky. Mr. Murtaugh later worked briefly for SAIC and then a succession of Chinese start-ups, but did not repeat his success at G.M. He declined to comment for this article.

墨斐失去了独立性和大部分权力，因此愤而辞职。在49岁时遭遇人生第一次失业后，他从上海回到了自己位于肯塔基州的家。他后来曾短暂为上汽集团工作，并先后加入了几家中国初创公司，但均未能再现他在通用汽车的成功。他拒绝就本文置评。

At the G.M.-SAIC joint venture, the pace of hits began to slow.

在通用汽车与上汽的合资企业中，成功的步伐开始放缓。

In 2007, the same year the LaCrosse hybrid went on sale, China’s premier, Wen Jiabao, chose a former Audi engineer, Wan Gang, to become the country’s minister of science and technology. Mr. Wan would stay in the job for 11 years and, with instructions from the country’s top leaders to spend whatever it took, oversaw the initial conversion of the Chinese auto industry to electric cars.

2007年，就在混合动力君越轿车在中国上市的同一年，中国总理温家宝任命前奥迪工程师万钢为科技部长。万钢在这一岗位上工作了11年，按照国家领导人的指示，不惜一切代价推进中国汽车工业向电动车转型。

“If you compare it to Western governments’ back and forth, the Chinese government’s unswerving commitment to the development of the E.V. market gave companies and investors the confidence to go forward,” said Stephen Dyer, a former Ford Motor executive in China who now leads Asia automotive consulting at AlixPartners.

“与西方政府反复无常的政策相比，中国政府对电动车市场发展的坚定投入给企业和投资者带来了前进的信心，”曾在中国担任福特汽车高管、现为艾睿铂亚洲汽车咨询负责人戴加辉(Stephen Dyer)说道。

In response to changes in the Chinese market, G.M. decided in 2011 to import the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, which had been developed with assistance from the Obama administration. But the Chinese government told G.M. that the Volt would not qualify for government subsidies — up to $19,300 per car — unless G.M. agreed to transfer electric car technology to SAIC Motor, like how to make powerful batteries that could be recharged many times.

为应对中国市场的变化，通用汽车在2011年决定进口由奥巴马政府协助研发的雪佛兰Volt插电式混合动力车。但中国政府告诉通用汽车，Volt将无法获得每辆车最高可达1.93万美元的政府补贴，除非通用汽车同意向上汽集团转移电动车技术，包括如何制造可多次充电的高性能电池。

G.M. faced pressure from Congress not to share technologies developed partly with federal money. The company agreed to transfer electric car technology to the joint venture, but not the Volt’s technology. As a result, the model did not qualify for the Chinese subsidies, which doomed it to be uncompetitive.

通用汽车面临来自美国国会的压力，要求其不要分享部分利用联邦资金开发的技术。最终，通用汽车同意向合资企业转移电动车技术，但其中不包括Volt的相关技术。因此，该车型无法获得中国的补贴，导致其竞争力低下。

G.M. then became more cautious in its approach to China. Executives at Volkswagen, Ford and other automakers had long warned that G.M. was sharing too much advanced technology with SAIC. G.M. executives in the United States began to have the same worry.

此后，通用汽车对中国市场的策略变得更加谨慎。大众、福特等汽车制造商的高管早就警告通用汽车，认为其与上汽集团分享了太多先进技术。美国的通用汽车高管也开始产生了同样的担忧。

去年，中国合肥一家蔚来工厂的生产线上运行的机器人。像小鹏汽车这样的中国汽车初创企业在大力投资于机器人和设计创新。2021年，中国宁波的一家极氪汽车工厂。

The joint venture began building many cars in China using a lower-tech vehicle technology that lost appeal as the country became more affluent and Chinese automakers learned to build better cars. G.M. transferred designers and engineers from its Brazil and Mexico operations to Shanghai to replace higher-paid American engineers.

通用的合资企业开始在中国使用低技术含量的汽车技术制造许多车型，但随着中国逐渐富裕起来，中国汽车制造商也学会制造品质更佳的汽车，相关技术逐渐失去了吸引力。通用汽车将巴西和墨西哥业务的设计师和工程师调往上海，以替代薪资更高的美国工程师。

At the same time, SAIC was withdrawing Chinese engineers from the joint venture after they had worked with G.M.’s technology. SAIC assigned them to develop its own cars and minivans. Many of those SAIC vehicles would later compete directly with cars from its joint venture with G.M.

与此同时，中国工程师在通用汽车的技术环境中工作过之后，上汽集团逐渐将他们从合资企业撤回，让这些工程师研发上汽自己的小汽车和小型货车。这些上汽的车型后来与其与通用汽车合资企业生产的汽车构成了直接竞争。

In 2016, G.M. tried again to offer a plug-in hybrid, the Buick Velite. Even though the batteries were made in China, Beijing decided to block subsidies to buyers, without telling G.M. in advance, because the company making the batteries in China, LG, was South Korean.

2016年，通用汽车再次尝试推出插电式混合动力车别克Velite。尽管该款车型电池是在中国制造的，但由于供应这些电池的公司LG是韩国公司，北京决定不向消费者提供补贴，且并未事先告知通用汽车。

When the pandemic began in early 2020, G.M. evacuated almost all foreign employees and their families from China, as did Volkswagen and other automakers. China’s borders were sealed to travelers. But Chinese automotive start-ups like Nio, Xpeng Motors and Zeekr were investing heavily in robots and design innovations.

2020年初疫情爆发后，通用汽车将几乎全部外籍员工及其家属从中国撤离，大众和其他汽车制造商也采取了同样的措施。中国关闭了边境，但蔚来、小鹏汽车和极氪等中国汽车初创企业在机器人和设计创新方面投入了巨资。

Today, Chinese automakers dominate their home market. SAIC, G.M.’s longtime partner, is among the most successful. Private Chinese companies emerging from the cellphone industry — like BYD, Xiaomi and Huawei — pose even more formidable competition.

如今，中国汽车制造商主导了国内市场。通用汽车长期合作伙伴上汽集团是其中最成功车企之一。比亚迪、小米和华为这样从手机行业转型过来的中国民营企业则成为更强悍的竞争对手。

Last week, G.M. shut its Cruise driverless taxi program in the United States. The initiative had been essential to the company’s long-term competitiveness in China, where the government is pushing faster for autonomous driving than anywhere else in the world.

上周，通用汽车叫停了其在美国的Cruise无人驾驶出租车项目。该项目对公司在中国的长期竞争力至关重要，因为中国政府在推动自动驾驶技术方面比世界其他任何地方都更积极。

G.M. said it was not giving up on China.

通用汽车表示，他们并未放弃中国市场。

In April, its joint venture with SAIC introduced a plug-in hybrid version of the GL8 minivan, which has had few changes since the 1990s. It is still the best-selling minivan in China. But SAIC has introduced an almost identical competitor, the Maxus G90.

今年4月，通用汽车与上汽集团的合资企业推出了一款GL8商务车的插电式混合动力版本，自上世纪90年代以来该车型几乎没有发生变化。它仍然是中国销量最好的商务车。但上汽集团推出了一款几乎相同的竞争车型——迈克萨斯G90。

G.M. began importing Chevrolet Tahoe full-size sport utility vehicles to China from the United States this year. And to bypass Chinese taxes, it is replacing their engines with much smaller ones.

今年，通用汽车开始从美国进口雪佛兰Tahoe全尺寸SUV。为了避开中国的征税，该公司正在用更小的发动机取代这些车型的引擎。

Wuling, the maker of utilitarian minivans and pickups, is selling three times as many vehicles in China as mainstay G.M. brands. G.M. still profits from its 44 percent investment, but SAIC is the controlling shareholder in Wuling with a 49 percent stake.

在中国，生产实用小型厢式车和皮卡的五菱汽车的销量是通用汽车主流车型的三倍。通用汽车仍可从其持有的44%股份中获利，但上汽集团凭借49%的股份成为了五菱的控股股东。

G.M. said its China sales of electric and plug-in hybrid cars surpassed its sales of gasoline cars in late summer for the first time. Overall sales have increased each month since July. “Our results have begun to improve,” the company said.

通用汽车表示，今年夏末其在中国销售的电动车和插电式混合动力车首次超过了燃油车的销量。自7月以来，该公司总体销量每月都在增长。“我们的业绩已经开始改善，”公司表示。

But many in China see not just G.M. but all foreign automakers as dangerously behind. More than four-fifths of the electric and plug-in hybrid cars sold here are Chinese brands.

但在中国，许多人认为，不仅是通用汽车，所有外国汽车制造商都显得严重落后。中国市场销售的电动车和插电式混合动力车中，超过五分之四为中国品牌。

“It is not just G.M.,” said Mr. Russo, the former Chrysler executive, who is now a Shanghai electric car consultant. “Everyone among the foreign automakers had a condescending, arrogant attitude toward the capability of the Chinese companies to embrace innovation.”

“不仅仅是通用汽车，”曾任克莱斯勒高管、现为一家上海电动车咨询公司顾问的鲁索表示。“所有的外国汽车制造商都对中国企业拥抱创新的能力持有一种居高临下的傲慢态度。”

2023年，上海车展上展出的一辆别克GL8小型厢式车。在上海的一家销售进口汽车的通用汽车经销店展示的一辆雪佛兰Tahoe。尽管通用汽车在中国的大部分车型是通过合资企业生产并销售的，但它正在尝试从美国进口少量车型。