Gerald C. Meyers, at the time the chairman and chief executive of American Motors, which owned the Jeep brand, has said that he initially saw China as a low-cost place to build vehicles for the Australian market, and never anticipated that the country would grow into such a major well of customers.

Chrysler, which bought American Motors in 1987, later decided not to invest in a big expansion of manufacturing operations in China, hoping instead to import Jeeps from the United States. But Jeep was hurt by very steep Chinese tariffs on imported vehicles; for many years, as a consequence, models like the Grand Cherokee cost twice as much in China as in other countries.

Jeep’s difficulties in China, and the extent to which it found itself transferring considerable technology to China in exchange for short-term financial gains, were an early lesson for Western businesses and the Chinese government alike, and were chronicled in a popular 1989 book, “Beijing Jeep.”

The brand’s experience is far from unique, as a long list of Western companies have seen Chinese companies absorb their technology and become global competitors in sectors like diesel freight locomotives, high-speed electric trains and power station turbines.

Tariffs and other taxes shielded the domestic automotive industry in particular from international competition and allowed companies like Great Wall to grow into strong competitors. Chinese manufacturers now hold not only much of their home country’s market for sport utility vehicles, but also large shares of emerging markets in South America, Africa and Southeast Asia, where cost-conscious buyers like Chinese producers’ deeply discounted prices and don’t mind the basic designs and sometimes uneven quality.

More recently, Fiat Chrysler has been expanding Jeep manufacturing in the past two years in China, starting production in Changsha and Guangzhou, two big manufacturing centers in the country’s southeast. But it now faces well-financed domestic competitors with highly developed supply chains and considerable economies of scale.

Great Wall’s expression of interest might prod other suitors to come forward and start a process that could lead to Fiat Chrysler’s sale or breakup. Companies such as Volkswagen might be interested in parts of Fiat Chrysler such as Alfa Romeo, a maker of small and midsize passenger cars known for their Italian styling.