With tariffs rising around the world and President Trump vowing an end to decades of globalization, China’s leadership is trumpeting a tropical island as proof that it is moving in the opposite direction.

随着全球关税不断上升，特朗普总统誓言要终结持续了数十年的全球化，中国领导人正在大力宣传一个热带岛屿，以此证明中国正在朝着相反的方向前进。

The island of Hainan — a province of China off the country’s southern coast 50 times the size of Singapore — last month scrapped tariffs on most imports, slashed corporate and individual taxes and declared itself the world’s largest “free trade port.” China declared it an emblem of its readiness for two-way trade with the world.

海南省位于中国南部沿海，面积相当于新加坡的50倍——这座岛屿上月取消了对大部分进口商品的关税，大幅削减企业和个人税负，并宣布成为全球最大的“自由贸易港”。中国宣称，这标志着中国愿意与世界进行双向贸易。

Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, called Hainan “a significant gateway leading China’s opening up in the new era.”

中国最高领导人习近平称海南是“我国新时代对外开放的重要门户”。

As portrayed by Beijing, Hainan’s experiment with tariff-free trade recalls the spirit of China’s early reform era after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. The Communist Party ditched socialist dogma and began testing bold free-market policies in certain areas. Those that worked were rolled out more widely.

在北京的叙事里，海南实施自由贸易试验的做法让人回想起1976年毛泽东去世后中国改革开放初期的精神。当时，中国共产党摒弃了社会主义教条，开始在一些地区试验大胆的自由市场政策。被证明行之有效的政策将在更广范围推广。

China’s place in global trade is very different now. The country has grown into the world’s unrivaled manufacturing power and second-largest economy. Mr. Xi has repeatedly called for self-reliance and worked to ensure that China is never dependent on anything foreign. He has shown little interest in altering the high tariffs and export-focused policies that helped give China a gargantuan $1 trillion trade surplus last year.

如今中国在全球贸易中的地位已截然不同。这个国家已成长为世界无可匹敌的制造业大国和全球第二大经济体。习近平多次呼吁自力更生，并努力确保中国永远不依赖任何外国事物。他看起来无意调整高关税和以出口为核心的政策——正是这些政策去年帮助中国创造了高达1万亿美元的巨额贸易顺差。

“There is no sign that Hainan is a forerunner for a broader and more systematic opening up of the national economy,” said Richard McGregor, a senior fellow for East Asia at the Lowy Institute, an Australian research center. “At a time of record trade surpluses,” he added, Hainan’s new role as a free trade entrepôt “has a strong whiff of bait and switch about it in political and P.R. terms.”

澳大利亚智库洛伊研究所的东亚高级研究员马利德(Richard McGregor)说：“没有迹象表明海南正在引领国民经济实现更大范围、更系统化的开放。”他还说，“在贸易顺差创纪录之际”，海南作为自由贸易港的新角色“在政治与公关层面都带着强烈的挂羊头卖狗肉意味”。

Most foreign goods can now flow freely into Hainan, whose 10 million people account for less than 1 percent of China’s total population. But those imports are not allowed to leave the island for other parts of the country unless stringent conditions are met.

如今，大多数外国商品可以自由进入海南，该省有1000万人口，这个数字仅占中国总人口的1%不到。但这些进口商品不允许离开海南岛进入中国其他地方，除非满足严格的条件。

The combination of policies is meant to prevent the tariff-free imports to Hainan from seeping into other parts of the country, where high tariffs remain in force.

这一政策组合旨在防止免税进口商品渗透到仍然实行高关税的中国其他地区。

That China has no plans to abandon its protectionist trade policies was made clear a few days after the Hainan Free Trade Port began working on Dec. 18: The commerce ministry in Beijing imposed tariffs of up to 42.7 percent on dairy imports to China from Europe.

中国无意放弃其保护主义贸易政策，这一点在12月18日海南自贸港启动后几天就变得十分清楚：中国商务部对来自欧洲、进入中国的乳制品征收最高达42.7%的关税。

On the last day of the year, the ministry announced what it called “safeguard measures on imported beef,” a system of quotas and tariffs of 55 percent designed to limit imports. And on Tuesday, it said it would put tight controls on exports of goods to Japan that have dual civilian and military uses.

年底最后一天，商务部宣布了所谓“进口牛肉保障措施”，即通过配额和高达55%的关税来限制进口。本周二又表示将严格两用物项对日本的出口管制。

Goods imported to Hainan cannot be shipped to other parts of China duty-free unless they have been processed in ways that increase their value by at least 30 percent.

进口到海南的货物，除非加工增值达到至少30%，否则不能免税运往中国其他地区。

At Haikou’s New Port, a gigantic passenger and cargo terminal in the provincial capital, ships sail night and day to the neighboring province of Guangdong. But what used to be a domestic transport hub has become in effect an international border. The Chinese customs service controls the flow of goods out of Hainan to elsewhere in China, checking trucks for any duty-free goods that are being smuggled into the rest of the country.

在省会海口，船只昼夜不停地从巨大的新港客货码头驶往邻近的广东省。但曾经的国内交通枢纽实际上已成为一道国际边界。中国海关管控着从海南流向中国其他地方的货物，检查卡车是否夹带任何免税商品走私进入中国其他地区。

Although highly restricted, the possibility of access to the Chinese market beyond Hainan is already attracting a few foreign companies that would otherwise face high tariffs trying to sell to Guangdong or other Chinese provinces.

尽管限制很多，但能够进入海南之外中国市场的这种可能性已经吸引了一些外国公司——若直接向广东或其他中国省份销售商品，它们原本将面临高额关税。

Nesredin Hussein, a coffee merchant from Ethiopia, recently rented a warehouse near Haikou to store beans imported to the island duty-free. He plans to buy roasting equipment so he can process coffee brought into Hainan tariff-free and then ship it to other parts of China for sale without paying a tariff or tax.

来自埃塞俄比亚的咖啡商人纳斯雷丁·侯赛因近日在海口附近租下仓库，用来存放免税进口到海南的咖啡豆。他计划购买烘焙设备，对以免税方式进入海南的咖啡进行加工，然后再把这些咖啡运往中国其他地区销售，无需支付关税或税费。

“For me, this is a very good opportunity” given China’s voracious appetite for coffee, he said, noting that he would otherwise have to pay up to 30 percent in tariffs and other taxes on any beans he imported into mainland China directly. “Here the rate is zero,” he said, after a visit with his wife and three children to the Hainan branch of Harrow School, an elite British boarding school.

他说，考虑到中国对咖啡的巨大需求，“这对我来说是一个绝佳的机会。”若直接向中国大陆出口咖啡豆，他将不得不支付高达30%的关税和其他税费。“这里的税率是零，”他说。之前他携妻子和三个孩子参观了英国精英寄宿学校哈罗公学的海南分校。

Less convinced is Kamthon Wangudom, an ethnic Chinese businessman from Thailand who, invited to Hainan in December to visit a village where his ancestors lived, was taken first to an exhibition center pitching the island’s investment opportunities. He said his renewable energy company in Bangkok had already invested in Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines but was staying away from China because it “is too big and too complicated.” He is skeptical the new tariff regime will change much.

来自泰国的华裔商人甘通·旺乌东则持保留态度。去年12月，他受邀来到海南参观祖辈曾经生活的村庄，却首先被带到一个展示中心，向他推介海南投资机会。他说，他在曼谷的可再生能源公司已经在台湾、日本和菲律宾进行了投资，但尚未涉足中国，因为它“太大、太复杂”。他对新的关税制度能否带来实质性改变持怀疑态度。

Hainan likes to compare itself to Hawaii for its palm-fringed beaches and resorts; like Hawaii, it is also studded with military facilities. These include a giant naval base near the southern resort town of Sanya that has grown rapidly as China asserted its claims over the South China Sea. Mr. Xi visited Hainan in November to tout the duty-free policies. But his main purpose was to inspect the naval base and attend the commissioning of a new aircraft carrier. Mr. Xi made clear that the strategic importance of Hainan means that security interests must trump economic ambitions.

海南喜欢将自己比作夏威夷，因为岛上也有棕榈掩映的海滩和度假胜地；与夏威夷相似的是，海南也遍布军事设施。其中包括南部度假城市三亚附近的一个大型海军基地，随着中国在南海宣示主权，该基地迅速扩大。习近平去年11月访问海南时曾大谈自贸港。但他此行的主要目的是视察海军基地并出席一艘新航母的入列仪式。习近平明确表示，海南的战略重要性意味着安全利益必须优先于经济雄心。

Communist Party officials have plastered Haikou with red banners praising Mr. Xi and a “new era of openness.” Yet they declined to be interviewed for this article and ordered private companies on the island not to discuss how the new tariff-free regime might help or hurt their business.

中共官员在海口张贴了大量红色标语，歌颂习近平以及“新时代的开放”。然而，他们拒绝接受本报道的采访，并下令岛上的私营企业不得讨论新的免税制度可能对其业务带来何种利弊。

Officials have good reason to be jittery. A few days before the tariff-free system began last month, a court in Shanghai sentenced the island’s former longtime Communist Party leader, Luo Baoming, to 15 years in jail for taking more than 113 million yuan (about $16 million) in bribes over a nearly three-decade career.

官员们的紧张并非没有缘由。就在自贸港启动前几天，上海一家法院判处在海南担任多年省委书记的罗保铭15年有期徒刑，因其在近30年的职业生涯中收受贿赂超过1.13亿元（约合1600万美元）。

Mr. Luo was the latest senior Hainan official to be sent to jail in recent years for corruption.

罗保铭是近年来因腐败入狱的最新一位海南高级官员。

Hainan has a history of big plans that often disappoint, starting with its designation as China’s last but biggest Special Economic Zone in 1988, a high tide of cooperation with foreign business that has receded rapidly since Mr. Xi came to power in 2012.

海南历来不缺宏大规划，但结果往往令人失望。这可以追溯到1988年，当时海南被指定为中国最后一个也是最大的经济特区，它曾迎来与外国企业合作的高潮，但自2012年习近平上台以来，这股浪潮迅速退去。

Unable to match the extraordinary economic growth of rival special zones like Shenzhen, next to Hong Kong, Hainan was for years largely seen as a sunny also-ran. It built up its tourist industry, including medical tourism, and constructed new highways and high-speed railway lines. In the 1990s, it spawned a property crash on the island, the first in China under communism.

由于难以与毗邻香港的深圳等对手特区的惊人经济增长相匹敌，海南多年来在很大程度上被视为一个阳光明媚的陪跑者。它发展了包括医疗旅游在内的旅游业，并建设了新的高速公路和高铁线。上世纪90年代，海南房地产崩盘，这是共产主义中国历史上的首次。

Mr. Xi first announced plans to turn Hainan into a free-trade mecca in 2018. The project began with the opening of huge duty-free malls in Haikou and Sanya. This attracted Chinese tourists looking for discounted foreign luxury brands but failed to reverse the economic fortunes of an island still scarred by the impact of the property meltdown.

Today’s development of Hainan’s free port “faces tough reality checks,” according to a study by the Asia Competitiveness Institute at the National University of Singapore. Hainan is far less successful than other Chinese Special Economic Zones and attracts relatively little direct foreign investment, the report said.

根据新加坡国立大学亚洲竞争力研究所的一项研究，如今海南自贸港的发展“面临严峻的现实考验”。报告称，海南远不如中国其他经济特区成功，而且吸引的外商直接投资相对有限。

For others, however, the importance of Hainan is its role as a test ground for innovative policies that don’t rock the boat.

不过，对其他人而言，海南的重要性在于它扮演了“政策试验田”的角色——不会造成大范围混乱的前提下尝试创新政策。

The free trade port experiment will allow China to try out new approaches to such things as finance, education and taxes, said Lauren Johnson, founder of New South Economics, a consultancy in Melbourne, Australia, “while concurrently protecting the status quo on the mainland.”

澳大利亚墨尔本咨询公司“新南方经济学”创始人劳伦·约翰逊表示，自贸港实验将允许中国在金融、教育和税收等领域尝试新方法，“同时维护大陆的现状”。