BEIJING — President Trump arrived in China on Wednesday backed by campaign-trail promises to get tough against the United States’ largest trading partner. He is accompanied by the chiefs of some of the most ambitious and influential American companies: Boeing, Goldman Sachs, Westinghouse Electric and Qualcomm, among others.

The expected outcome? Not much, to the frustration of some American business executives.

Mr. Trump’s meetings this week with Xi Jinping, China’s president, and other Chinese leaders come at a difficult time for both countries. Each has been consumed with domestic issues, from West Wing infighting and a special counsel investigation in Washington to a sensitive leadership transition in Beijing.

The Trump administration in particular has been stretched thin on trade. It has been slow to fill important trade-related positions, because of distractions and the lengthy congressional confirmation process. The administration has been preoccupied with rewriting the North American Free Trade Agreement and a United States trade deal with South Korea.

Trade has also been supplanted by North Korea as the most talked-about issue in Northeast Asia for President Trump, and an issue on which he wants Chinese cooperation, not confrontation. With the administration also trying to push tax policy changes through Congress, two top economic officials are not even joining the trip, but staying in Washington — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Gary D. Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council.