When President Hu Jintao arrives in Washington this month for his first visit as China's president, the two sides will already have come to an understanding on one of the most difficult issues.

Not over trade or nuclear proliferation but on the protocol of what to call Mr. Hu's visit.

The Chinese are calling it a state visit.

The Americans say it is not.

The two sides have agreed to disagree.

The fact that even protocol remains in dispute would seem a bad omen for anyone expecting progress on the substantive differences straining the countries' relationship. But negotiating over silverware, in effect, is almost always a major issue when a Chinese leader goes to the United States.

"Everyone else sees the substantive issues," said Kenneth G. Lieberthal, a senior National Security Council official in the Clinton administration who specialized in China. "But you spend endless hours working on all the other stuff: Who's going to get invited to the state dinner?"

Mr. Hu was supposed to go to Washington in September, but the visit was postponed because of Hurricane Katrina. He is now scheduled to meet Mr. Bush on April 20. The protocol, according to a Bush administration official, is as follows: Mr. Hu will not get a state dinner but will be the guest of honor, along with his wife, at a formal White House luncheon. He will, however, receive full military honors at a welcoming ceremony on the White House lawn. And he will be lodged at Blair House, the president's official guest house.

The Americans contend that this treatment represents a pretty good helping of pomp, pageantry and respect. They note that Mr. Bush is especially stingy with state visits (he's been host to a mere five in five years ¡ª for India, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland and Kenya) and is no fan of formal occasions. But they also know what the Chinese know: that Mr. Hu is getting less than his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, who was accorded a full state visit by President Bill Clinton in 1997. And to the Chinese, that matters.

"In many ways, the most important thing for the visit of the president of China to the United States is protocol," said Michael Green, who stepped down in December as head of Asian affairs for the National Security Council in the Bush administration. Mr. Green helped prepare for the postponed September visit, though not the coming trip. He estimated that 80 percent of negotiations in advance of a Chinese leadership trip were about protocol, largely because of Chinese concerns over their domestic television audience.

"The Chinese public, especially out in the provinces, needs and wants to see their leader being shown the fullest respect," said Mr. Green, who now teaches international relations at Georgetown University.

Chinese advance teams are meticulously prepared when negotiations commence. Mr. Lieberthal said Chinese diplomats kept detailed records on which leader received what during which visit ¡ª how many guns saluted a certain leader, what kind of meal was served at the White House, which American official served as the official greeter at the airport. Each trip must outdo the last.

"Is there something you can do where you can say this is the first time that the president has done this with a famous leader?" Mr. Lieberthal said in describing one protocol objective the Chinese have.

Mr. Jiang and Mr. Clinton established a round-the-clock telephone line as a symbol of warming relations. (Given the advances in technology, perhaps Mr. Hu and Mr. Bush can announce a joint blog.)

At first, Mr. Jiang also tasted American rejection. He spurned a 1995 offer by Mr. Clinton for a "working visit" to Washington. Mr. Jiang, still emerging from the shadow of Deng Xiaoping, insisted on the same state visit hoopla that Jimmy Carter had accorded Mr. Deng. He got his wish two years later.

Shi Yinhong, a specialist in United States-China relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said protocol and appearances were important to all countries, including the United States. He said the current squabble hinted at the deeper fissures between the countries and, perhaps, a test of wills between the leaders.

"Maybe President Bush does not want China to be too happy," Mr. Shi said. "And President Hu also may not want to let the United States president look down on him and China."

There could well be something to this first point. Even as the Americans place the onus on the Chinese for placing so much emphasis on protocol, the Bush administration does not seem eager to provide too enthusiastic a welcome at a time when anti-China protectionism is rising in the United States.

So when Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, announced the visit last month, the omission of the word "state," again, was obvious and pointed.

At a recent news briefing at the Foreign Ministry in Beijing, a spokesman was asked about the American announcement. "President Hu's visit is at the invitation of President Bush," the spokesman, Qin Gang, replied. "And it is a state visit."

But the American announcement failed to mention a state visit, no? "It's a state visit," Mr. Qin persisted. "A state visit is a state visit."

Unless, of course, it is both a state visit and not.