“But when you discuss American policy,” he added, “many people — many of the same people — are highly critical.”

People here were subjected to Chinese news coverage of Mr. Xi’s American visit, which smothered audiences with images and accounts of the leader as a strong, poised statesman, winning the respect of President Obama, American tech executives and ordinary Americans.

“Chinese state visits to the United States are primarily domestic choreography for the Chinese public,” Professor Xie said. “This state visit, with the reception by President Obama and the U.S. media attention, is to show that he has international stature and deserves and receives respect.”

The promotional drive for Mr. Xi sometimes went to fanciful extremes. State news media likened the trip to Deng Xiaoping’s in 1979, which helped re-establish diplomatic relations. Foreign students were recruited into offering dewy-eyed praise for Mr. Xi in an online video. The newspaper China Daily claimed that a survey found that nearly 80 percent of American youths were interested in his visit.

It was too much for some Chinese, even those usually inured to high-pitched propaganda.

“A state visit to America is a major event,” said Mary Li, an English-language student at a Beijing university, who asked not to use her Chinese name to avoid getting into trouble at school. “But we know the United States doesn’t revolve around China. The pope was there, too, wasn’t he?”

But opinion surveys indicate that many Chinese people back their government’s views on international relations, even if they admire other aspects of American life. Research by the Pew Research Center and other institutions indicates that admiration for American enterprise, and even some American values, is often mixed with wariness, especially of the government’s intentions abroad. (The surveys show that many Americans reciprocate.)

In the latest survey, based on polling this year, 67 percent of Chinese respondents said their country would replace, or had already replaced, the United States as the world’s leading superpower. (In Western countries, many respondents agreed.) A majority, 54 percent, of Chinese said the United States was seeking to prevent China from becoming as powerful as itself.