To many Chinese, Mr. Trump came to Beijing as a kind of supplicant, needing help on critical issues. “It is no longer possible for an American president to come to China and tell China to do this or that,” said Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.

In 2009, President Barack Obama paid his first visit to China at a time when the United States was reeling from the financial crisis and the Chinese economy was ascendant. As with Mr. Trump, the Chinese authorities did not allow questions during his appearance with then-President Hu Jintao. State television did not broadcast a town-hall meeting that Mr. Obama held with students.

On later visits, however, Mr. Obama made headway with China on issues like climate change. Like his predecessors, he regularly raised human rights concerns. In 2014, the White House persuaded the Chinese to allow questions during his news conference with Mr. Xi, which was viewed at the time as a major symbolic victory for Mr. Obama.

Trump administration officials blamed the Chinese for the refusal to take questions on Thursday, but it was not clear whether they had pressed the issue. Nor was it clear how energetically Mr. Trump had brought up human rights with Mr. Xi, even in private. He said nothing about the issue in public, beyond a general commitment to individual rights and the rule of law.

His failure to draw attention to human rights “will have a demonstrable negative impact on the lives of dissidents in China,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Asia. “External pressure is the only reason Chinese government treats dissidents better.”

Mr. Trump’s conciliatory words on trade were particularly striking, given his protectionist threats during the 2016 presidential campaign. At the end of his appearance with Mr. Xi, an American reporter asked whether Mr. Trump still believed, as he once said, that China was “raping” the United States through unfair trade practices. (Mr. Trump did not respond.)

On North Korea, the leaders’ meeting brought similarly mixed results. Mr. Trump, officials said, asked Mr. Xi to cut off oil shipments, to shut down North Korean bank accounts, and to send home tens of thousands of North Koreans who work in China.