On Wednesday in Beijing, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized Chinese trade policies that hurt German companies.

周三，德国总理默茨在北京批评了损害德国公司利益的中国贸易政策。

The next day, he visited the Beijing operations of an iconic German automaker, rode in its new luxury sedan and listened politely as its chief executive extolled innovation opportunities in China.

次日，他参观了一家标志性德国车企的北京分部，乘坐了其新款豪华轿车，并礼貌地聆听了该公司首席执行官盛赞中国的创新机遇。

The juxtaposition showed a disconnect between Mr. Merz and the 30-some captains of German industry who accompanied him on his quick trip to China this week, a disconnect that is not limited to Beijing.

这种并存凸显出默茨与本周随他短暂访华的三十余位德国工业巨头之间的立场分歧，而这种分歧并非只限于同北京有关的问题。

Mr. Merz, arguably his continent’s most powerful politician, wants Europe to become less dependent on China and the United States, economically and militarily. He has warned both countries — and his European friends — of the dangers of a world in which great powers bully their way to whatever they want on the global stage.

作为堪称欧洲最具影响力的政治人士之一，默茨希望欧洲在经济与军事上减少对中国和美国的依赖。他已向这两个国家以及欧洲盟友发出警告，称大国在全球舞台上恃强凌弱、为所欲为的世界格局充满危险。

Europe’s business leaders are, at least publicly, far more constrained. They have avoided ruffling feathers in the world’s two largest economies, eager to tune out politics and focus on profits.

欧洲商界领袖至少在公开场合则要克制得多。他们避免触怒全球两大经济体，一心想抛开政治、专注盈利。

In a meeting this week with Xi Jinping, China’s leader, Mr. Merz raised concerns over Chinese factory subsidies and its weak currency, which he said impeded economic cooperation.

本周与中国国家主席习近平会晤时，默茨对中国的工厂补贴与人民币汇率偏低表达了担忧，称这些因素阻碍了经济合作。

Yet in interviews broadcast from the sidelines, executives talked mostly about exciting new technological partnerships with Chinese companies and opportunities to increase sales and innovation in the country.

但在会场外播出的采访中，企业高管们大多谈论的是与中国企业激动人心的新技术合作，以及在华扩大销售与创新的机遇。

Europe’s political leaders are reacting differently than its business elites are to the efforts by Mr. Xi and President Trump to bend the world to their will through economic and military might, said Lauren Goodwin, the chief market strategist for New York Life Investment Management.

纽约人寿投资管理公司首席市场策略师劳伦·古德温表示，面对习近平与特朗普试图通过经济与军事实力让世界屈服于其意志的努力，欧洲政治领袖与商界精英的反应截然不同。

Politicians and business leaders caught between the great powers “have the same things they have to worry about,” Ms. Goodwin said. “Just in a really different way.”

古德温称，夹在大国之间的政界人士与商界领袖“担忧的是同样的事情”，“只是应对方式截然不同”。

National leaders like Mr. Merz, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain and President Emmanuel Macron of France have called for ambitious steps to make Europe more capable in defense and more self-reliant economically. They want to keep ties with America and China, but rely on them less.

默茨、英国首相斯塔默、法国总统马克龙等国家领导人呼吁采取大胆举措，提升欧洲的国防能力与经济自主性。他们希望维持与美中的联系，但减少对两国的依赖。

Some corporate leaders have rejected that strategy, which is sometimes called de-risking. They worry it could upend longstanding investments and economic relationships across borders that have grown highly entwined.

部分企业领袖反对这种有时被称为“去风险”的战略。他们担心这会颠覆已高度交织的长期跨境投资与经济关系。

默茨周四在中国东部杭州的宇树科技产品展厅参观。

“The idea of de-risking seems like a good concept,” Bill Anderson, the chief executive of pharmaceutical titan Bayer, told Table.Media, a Berlin-based news outlet, in a video interview as he accompanied Mr. Merz to China this week. “But I think we then have to get grounded right back in reality, which is that the global supply chains that have been established over the last four to five decades have been enormously beneficial.”

“去风险的想法听起来不错，”制药巨头拜耳的首席执行官比尔·安德森本周随默茨访华期间，在接受柏林媒体Table.Media视频采访时表示。“但我认为我们必须回归现实——过去四五十年建立的全球供应链带来了巨大益处。”

Some executives, while offering careful support for Mr. Merz’s efforts this week, took pains to praise China as a market opportunity.

部分高管在谨慎支持默茨本周努力的同时，刻意称赞中国市场带来的机遇。

“Anyone who is serious about driving transformation in key sectors — from mobility to renewable energy — cannot look past China,” Ralf Brandstätter, the chief executive of Volkswagen Group China, said in a social media post this week. “At the same time, Europe, and Germany in particular, has every reason to articulate and pursue its interests with confidence.”

“任何真正致力于推动从出行到可再生能源等关键领域转型的人，都无法忽视中国，”大众汽车集团中国首席执行官贝瑞德(Ralf Brandstätter)本周在社交媒体发文称。“与此同时，欧洲，尤其是德国，完全有理由自信地阐明和追求自身利益。”

Some executives, like Ola Källenius, the Swedish-German chief executive of Mercedes-Benz, have increased their bets on America and China.

梅赛德斯-奔驰的瑞典裔德国首席执行官康林松(Ola Källenius)等部分高管正在加大对美国与中国的投资力度。

“We are on an investment offensive in the United States,” Mr. Källenius told me last month at his headquarters, during an interview in which he repeatedly praised Mr. Trump’s economic policies and declined to criticize China.

“我们正在美国大举投资，”康林松上月在公司总部接受笔者采访时表示，他在采访中多次称赞特朗普的经济政策，且拒绝批评中国。

Mercedes is a case study in the challenges facing German companies in reducing dependence on both those countries, which remain crucial markets for their products.

梅赛德斯-奔驰是德国企业在减少对中美依赖时所面临困境的典型案例——这两个国家仍是德企产品的重要市场。

Mercedes and other large multinational companies — particularly European automakers — have been playing defense against a blitz of change to the global economic order, largely wrought by Mr. Xi and Mr. Trump.

梅赛德斯-奔驰等大型跨国企业，尤其是欧洲车企，正竭力应对由习近平与特朗普主导的全球经济秩序剧变。

9月，德国慕尼黑车展上的梅赛德斯-奔驰展台。

China’s hefty state subsidies have helped it flood global markets with low-priced Chinese vehicles that are eating into German automakers’ market share. Mr. Trump’s tariffs on European exports have begun driving up the price of the cars Mercedes makes in Germany and ships to America, while his opposition to clean energy has clouded Mercedes’ plan to turn its fleet electric.

中国的巨额国家补贴使该国的低价汽车充斥全球市场，蚕食了德国车企的市场份额。特朗普对欧洲出口加征的关税推高了梅赛德斯-奔驰在德国生产并销往美国的汽车价格；而他反对清洁能源的立场则为该公司的全面电动化转型计划蒙上阴影。

Mr. Källenius is not a fan of tariffs, and has said so repeatedly; the company reported its profits were halved last year from the year before, and Mr. Trump’s levies were a major cause.

康林松对关税政策持反对态度，且已多次表态；该公司去年利润较前年减半，特朗普的关税是主要原因之一。

But when I asked him if any recent events or policies in the United States, including actions by the Trump administration that have alarmed Europe’s leaders and citizens, had changed his views on investing there, his answer was short.

但当我问他，近期美国发生的事件或政策，包括已引发欧洲领导人和民众警惕的特朗普政府的行动，是否改变了他对在美投资的看法时，他的回答很简短。

“No,” he said.

“没有，”他说。

On the rainy afternoon I visited Mr. Källenius in Stuttgart late last month, diplomats in Berlin were consumed with the fallout from Mr. Trump’s attempts to gain ownership of Greenland, the Danish territory he covets. German officials were privately expressing horror over the behaviors of federal immigration and customs officers in Minneapolis; coverage of the violence there dominated the German press.

上月末一个雨天的下午，我在斯图加特拜访康林松时，柏林的外交官们正忙于应对特朗普试图吞并他所觊觎的丹麦领土格陵兰的后续影响。德国官员私下对明尼阿波利斯联邦移民与海关官员的行为表示震惊；德国媒体铺天盖地地报道了那里的暴力事件。

I asked Mr. Källenius how he reacted to calls for business leaders to denounce the administration’s actions in Minneapolis. “I think before you pass judgment on anything, you really need to understand what’s going on,” he said. “And I would say a European business leader is not the right person to judge a situation anywhere in the world where you don’t have the local information.”

我问康林松，有人呼吁商界领袖谴责特朗普政府在明尼阿波利斯的行动，他对此作何反应。“我认为在评判任何事情之前，必须真正了解情况，”他说。“我想说的是，在不掌握当地信息的情况下，一个欧洲商界领袖并不是判断世界上任何地方局势的合适人选。”

When I asked about doing business in China, or other authoritarian countries, he said Mercedes sells into every country where Germany has diplomatic relations — 150 in all.

当我问及在中国或其他威权国家做生意的情况时，他表示，梅赛德斯-奔驰在所有与德国建交的国家销售产品——共计150个国家。

“If you would limit yourself to the places in the world that have exactly a mirror image of your society or your system down to the last bit and byte,” he said, “that would be a small group.”

“如果把业务局限于那些社会或制度和本国完全一致、如同镜像的地方，”他说，“那范围就太小了。”

德国总理默茨周三在北京与中国国家主席习近平会晤。

Mr. Källenius was relaxed, in a brown turtleneck and sport coat, in a conference room at company headquarters. He was soon to unveil the new S-class sedan — the same model Mr. Merz would later inspect in Beijing.

康林松身着棕色高领毛衣与休闲西装，在公司总部的会议室里显得从容放松。他很快将发布新款S级轿车——正是默茨后来在北京参观的同款车型。

When I asked about regulation from Brussels, Mr. Källenius offered an extended critique of European rules that he and Mr. Merz both say hinder competitiveness and growth.

当我问及欧盟监管时，康林松对欧洲的法规进行了长篇批评，他与默茨均认为这些法规阻碍了竞争力与增长。

In talking about the United States, Mr. Källenius was effusive in his praise for Mr. Trump’s administration, including its low energy costs and relaxed regulations. He described a phone call he took last year from Howard Lutnick, the American billionaire who was soon to be confirmed as the U.S. commerce secretary at the start of Mr. Trump’s second term.

谈及美国时，康林松对特朗普政府赞不绝口，包括其低廉的能源成本与宽松的监管。他提到去年接到美国亿万富翁霍华德·卢特尼克的电话——不久后，卢特尼克在特朗普第二任期伊始被任命为美国商务部长。

In the call, Mr. Lutnick pushed Mr. Källenius to move the automaker’s headquarters from Stuttgart to the United States.

在通话中，卢特尼克力劝康林松将梅赛德斯-奔驰总部从斯图加特迁至美国。

Mr. Källenius declined, but he went out of his way to explain to me that decision was a function of Mercedes’ 140-year history in Germany, and not a reflection on Mr. Lutnick’s investment pitch.

康林松拒绝了这一提议，但特意向我解释，这一决定源于梅赛德斯-奔驰在德国140年的历史，而非对卢特尼克投资提议的否定。

“He did a phenomenal job presenting the U.S. as an investment case for any multinational company,” Mr. Källenius recalled. “And I’m sold on that, except for the headquarters.”

“他极具说服力地向跨国企业展示了美国作为投资地的优势，”康林松回忆。“除了总部搬迁的事，我完全认同他。”

“There,” Mr. Källenius said, “the roots are too deep.”

“在这里，”康林松说，“根基非常深。”