In Washington, President Trump has said he is willing to meet with Xi Jinping, China’s top leader.

在华盛顿，特朗普总统表示，他愿意与中国最高领导人习近平会晤。

In Beijing, Chinese officials and experts agree that a meeting between the heads of state must precede any broad reset of relations with the United States amid Mr. Trump’s aggressive approach to trade and foreign policy.

在北京，中国官员和专家也认为，鉴于特朗普咄咄逼人的贸易和外交政策，两国元首举行会晤是与美国全面重启双边关系的前提。

But arranging a meeting is already proving slow and difficult.

但事实已经证明安排会晤是个缓慢而困难的过程。

Senator Steve Daines, Republican of Montana, who came to Beijing this month as an informal representative of Mr. Trump, said one of the main goals for his trip was to lay the groundwork for a presidential summit. After meeting China’s vice premier for economic policy, He Lifeng, Mr. Daines said in an interview that he believed a summit would be held by the end of the year — a slower pace than many in Washington had expected.

蒙大拿州共和党参议员史蒂夫·戴恩斯本月作为特朗普的非正式代表来到北京，他表示，此行的其中一个主要目标就是为元首会晤奠定基础。在与中国主管经济政策的副总理何立峰会面后，戴恩斯在接受采访时表示，他相信峰会将在今年年底前举行——这比许多华盛顿人士预期的要晚。

On the Chinese side, Communist Party officials and government advisers said in interviews over the past week that they were taken aback by Mr. Trump’s rapid-fire moves on tariffs, Greenland, Ukraine and other issues. They have been startled by his hostile treatment in public of foreign leaders like President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. As a result, they are cautious about scheduling a summit.

在中国方面，过去一周接受采访的共产党官员和政府顾问表示，他们对特朗普在关税、格陵兰岛、乌克兰等问题上的快速行动感到惊讶。特朗普在公开场合对乌克兰总统泽连斯基等外国领导人的敌对态度也让他们吓了一跳。因此，他们在峰会的安排上持谨慎态度。

Tensions between Beijing and Washington could worsen this week, when a new set of Mr. Trump’s tariffs is set to take effect in a potentially broad limit on trade.

北京和华盛顿之间的紧张局势可能会在本周加剧，届时特朗普的新一轮关税将生效，可能对贸易造成广泛制约。

Chinese officials are reluctant to schedule a summit until the two sides have negotiated details in advance, including a deal between the two countries that would endure for the rest of Mr. Trump’s term. The Trump administration has not yet specified what an acceptable deal might be.

在双方提前谈妥细节之前，中国官员不愿就峰会作出安排，这些细节包括两国之间达成一项在特朗普剩下的任期内有效的协议。特朗普政府尚未明确什么样的协议是可以接受的。

“The Chinese side believes the Trump administration has not really figured out what is the way to deal with China and make a deal,” Wu Xinbo, the dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said on Friday.

上海复旦大学国际问题研究院院长吴心伯周五表示：“中方认为，特朗普政府还没有真正想清楚要如何与中国打交道并达成协议。”

“The Chinese side would like to wait for a more constructive and sensible signal from the administration,” said Mr. Wu, who was part of an unofficial delegation of retired senior Chinese officials and academic advisers who met with American officials and experts last month in the United States.

吴心伯说：“中国方面想等待美国政府发出更具建设性和理智的信号。”他上月随一个中国退休高官和学术顾问组成的非官方代表团访美，与美国官员和专家举行了会面。

上月天津港的集装箱。中国对从美国进口的化石燃料和农产品施加了报复性关税。

Two other Chinese experts familiar with discussions between the United States and China mentioned the possibility of the two leaders meeting in New York City around the time of the United Nations General Assembly in September. But it remains unclear whether their governments can make enough progress by then, said the experts, who were not authorized to comment.

另外两名熟悉美中之间谈判情况的中国专家提到，两国领导人可能于9月联合国大会期间在纽约会晤。但这两位未获授权公开发表评论的专家表示，两国政府届时能否取得足够的进展仍是未知数。

In a faxed reply to questions about the possible timing of a summit, the spokesperson’s office at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it had “no information to release at this time.”

中国外交部发言人办公室通过传真回复了峰会可能何时举行的问题，称“目前没有可以发布的信息”。

Mr. He held a video call on Wednesday with Jamieson Greer, the United States trade representative. Mr. He expressed concern about Mr. Trump’s imposition of two rounds of 10 percent tariffs on Chinese goods so far this year, according to a Chinese statement after the meeting.

周三，何立峰与美国贸易代表贾米森·格里尔举行了视频通话。根据中方在会后发布的声明，何立峰对特朗普今年截至目前对中国商品征收的两轮10%的关税表达了关切。

China has already retaliated against Mr. Trump’s initial tariffs on Chinese goods by imposing extra tariffs on imports of American fossil fuels and agricultural products.

中国已经对特朗普向中国商品征收的第一批关税采取了报复措施，对从美国进口的化石燃料和农产品征收额外关税。

Senator Daines’s trip was only the second congressional visit to China in more than five years. While members of Congress usually travel in groups to foreign countries, no other senators or representatives chose to accompany Mr. Daines to Beijing.

戴恩斯参议员此行是五年多来美国国会成员第二次访华。通常国会议员会组团出访外国，但此次没有其他参议员或众议员随同前往北京。

Beijing has not rewarded the American side for Mr. Daines’s outreach. In an unannounced move on March 16, China, the world’s largest importer of beef, halted practically all imports of American beef. It had previously been buying $1 billion a year of American beef, much of it from Mr. Daines’s state.

北京方面并没有因为戴恩斯的访问而回报美方。3月16日，作为世界上最大的牛肉进口国，中国在未事先宣布的情况下几乎停止了所有美国牛肉的进口。此前，中国每年购买10亿美元的美国牛肉，其中大部分来自戴恩斯所在的州。

Beijing granted five-year licenses in March 2020 to several hundred American slaughterhouses to export beef to China. That came after years of intermittent interruptions in shipments because of trade frictions and China’s purported concerns over mad cow disease in the United States, although international animal health experts found the beef to be safe. China’s own beef industry has also long opposed imports.

2020年3月，中国政府向数百家美国屠宰场颁发了为期五年的对华牛肉出口许可证。在此之前，由于贸易摩擦和中国声称对美国疯牛病的担忧，美国牛肉的对华出口多年来一直时断时续，尽管国际动物卫生专家认为美国牛肉是安全的。中国自己的牛肉行业长期以来也一直反对进口。

The recent expiration of the export licenses has in effect closed the Chinese market, with shipments plummeting to 54 tons in the week after the licenses expired, from about 2,000 tons a week.

最近出口许可证的到期实际上等于关闭了中国市场，在许可证到期后的一周内，出货量从每周约2000吨骤降至54吨。

Beijing’s decision not to renew the slaughterhouse licenses put pressure on Mr. Daines.

中国政府不再延长屠宰场许可证的决定，给戴恩斯带来了压力。

“The effects of this decision on U.S. ranchers can hardly be overstated, which is why I raised this issue directly with Vice Premier He Lifeng,” Mr. Daines said, adding that he was “calling on China to reverse this decision.”

戴恩斯表示：“这一决定对美国牧场主的影响怎么强调都不为过，这就是为什么我直接向何立峰副总理提出了这个问题。”他还说，他“呼吁中国撤销这一决定”。

The spokesperson’s office at China’s foreign ministry said that it was “not aware” of the slaughterhouse license dispute.

中国外交部发言人办公室表示，它“不了解”屠宰场许可证的争议。