Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who met with Mr. Liu on Wednesday, said a day earlier that the Huawei case was being handled on a separate track from the trade talks. But given China’s heated reaction to the arrest and indictment, it is hard to imagine that Chinese officials will not raise the issue.

“I think it’s very difficult to keep them separate,” said Weijian Shan, a private equity investor based in Hong Kong and the author of “Out of the Gobi,” a memoir that depicts China’s modern history. “To the extent that China feels that this is a major issue with America, they will bring it up.”

For now, both sides appear eager to find areas of agreement, including on purchases of more American goods. China has demonstrated a willingness to address Mr. Trump’s concerns about the United States’ bilateral trade deficit with big purchases of goods and services, like chicken, soybeans and tractors. That is the easy part. More difficult is persuading China to overhaul its economic policies.

The Trump administration has been pushing China to scale back subsidies of state-owned enterprises, sharply open its markets to foreign investment and end its longstanding practice of forcing American companies to hand over trade secrets as a condition of doing business there. China has made a series of moves in the last month that suggest it is willing to accept some of those changes, but there is division in the Trump administration over whether they are merely symbolic — and empty — gestures.

“None of China’s domestic reforms since December have really addressed the structural issues in the relationship,” said Nick Marro, an Asia and China analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit. “Progress on increasing U.S. imports or tackling questions over China’s currency don’t really address what the U.S.T.R is really looking at, which are fundamental market access issues facing U.S. companies.”

One of the biggest questions hanging over the trade talks is whether the United States can truly enforce any deal agreed to by Beijing.

Mr. Trump has wielded tariffs as a stick to get Beijing to the bargaining table. But if the tariffs are lifted as part of a trade deal, there is no guarantee that China will live up to any commitments. American officials, who say China has broken promises in the past, have discussed mechanisms such as “snapback” tariffs that would be reimposed if China does not follow through. Another option is “carousel” tariffs that would hit different portions of Chinese products to prevent its economy from becoming immune to the pain of the duties.