Anatoly F. Dobrynin, the Soviet Ambassador, in a meeting with American officials at the State Department today, condemned United States plans to lift restrictions on the sale of arms to China.

Disclosure of the monitoring post, officials here said, could also unsettle internal affairs in China, where moderate leaders may be vulnerable to charges that they made secret deals with the United States.

According to information pieced together from officials in the last eight months, the idea to set up listening posts in China was first proposed to the Peking Government in 1978, before the establishment of diplomatic relations. Initially, the Chinese were reluctant to agree, apparently concerned about cooperating too closely with the United States.

The idea was pressed again after the overthrow of Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlevi in January 1979. Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, raised the issue with the Chinese in April 1979 when he led a Senate delegation to Peking. At the end of the visit, Senator Biden said that Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader, appeared sympathetic to the introduction of United States intelligence equipment into China, provided it was operated by the Chinese.

Formal agreement between the two Governments followed later in 1979, with the Chinese insisting that their technicians man the facilities and that operations be conducted in obsolute secrecy. Surveys for Two Sites Made

Surveys for two facilities were made. The Chinese eventually agreed to permit only one, officials said. The site in western China is close to ideal, officials said, because it allows monitoring of Soviet missile tests from launch through flight over Siberia to dispersion of warheads. It does not permit monitoring of the final stages of flight, including the reentry of the warheads.

The monitoring of missile tests is critical to the verification of Soviet compliance with key provisions of strategic arms agreements. It permits the United States, for example, to detect whether new missiles are being developed.