The trip could take place either before or after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea, which gets under way late next month.

The White House already imposed 30 per cent tariffs on imports of Chinese goods this year and is pressing its European allies to impose 100 per cent tariffs of their own on Chinese products, according to media reports.

Chen Qi, a professor of international relations at Tsinghua University, said the officials meeting this week were on a mission to relay messages and manage expectations for a potential meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.