If Mayor Bloomberg visits China next month during a trip to Asia to attend a United Nations meeting on climate change, he will likely engage in the complex diplomatic dance that’s expected of statesmen making official visits to the region.

In part to avoid upsetting American allies in Asia, American presidents and other top national officials often stop in a number of countries. When President Bush visited China in 2005, it was part of a larger Asian tour that took him to Japan, South Korea, and Mongolia.

Asked if the mayor was considering visiting other countries when he travels to the island of Bali in Indonesia in mid-December, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg, Stuart Loeser, wrote in an e-mail message: “If we make other plans, we’ll announce them when we do.” Mr. Loeser said Mr. Bloomberg is considering visiting China while in the region.

A press officer from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, Abby Lee, said she didn’t think Mr. Bloomberg would visit Taiwan if he went to China, because “China will say no, probably.”

Sitting American presidents do not visit Taiwan while in office, she said, but she added that President Clinton, who traveled to Taiwan four times when he was governor of Arkansas, returned to Taiwan after leaving the White House.

Ms. Lee recalled that Mr. Bloomberg had attended a reception in 2005 to celebrate the Taiwanese holiday, Double Ten day, which commemorates the start of the revolution that led to the formation of Taiwan.

“We have a very positive position toward his visit to China, but also wish he can visit Taiwan as well,” she said. “We doubt he would take our invitation.”

Mr. Bloomberg for months has been the center of speculation that he would mount a campaign for the White House as an independent. Because of his growing national profile, his activities on the upcoming trip are likely to come under much scrutiny.

An author and senior fellow for American foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, Walter Russell Mead, encouraged Mr. Bloomberg to visit Japan and South Korea and to conduct a “listening tour” while in Asia.

“China, Korea, Japan – these are important parts of our economic life in the city. What do they think of us? What are their investors telling them about conditions in New York? What do they hear from immigrants living in our city? Do have they suggestions in their minds about what would make New York a better place,” he said. “I don’t think it would be appropriate to go off with the idea: ‘I am going to enlighten the world about how we do things in New York.'”

A professor at Cooper Union who is a historian of Mayor Giuliani’s administration, Fred Siegel, said if Mr. Bloomberg does go to China, he could take one of two approaches: approach it as a fact-finding tour and say “nothing of consequence” or speak about more substantive issues, including the safety of products made in China, the undervalued Yuan, and the country’s military build up.

“If he does speak and comes near these issues, it’s important for him to be able to say something that speaks to American concerns in a reasonable way,” he said.

The executive director of the New York-based advocacy group Human Rights in China, Sharon Hom, said in a statement that human rights problems in China are continuous and include press censorship, harassment of activists, and corruption.

“Mayor Bloomberg, and other high-profile individuals going to China, should use every opportunity, privately and publicly, to raise human rights issues with Chinese officials,” she said.

It’s possible that Mr. Bloomberg would speak to Chinese officials about allowing New York to advertise in China. The city’s worldwide advertising campaign, which includes television advertisements bound for Spain, Ireland, France, and Britain, can’t hit the airwaves in China because of licensing issues. The city, which has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, was in discussion last month with private companies about a possible airtime swap.

Navigating Chinese relations from New York hasn’t always been easy for Mr. Bloomberg. In 2005, he created a stir in Chinese restaurants when he said he was cutting back on Chinese food to lost weight, the New York Times reported.

In 2006, the Bloomberg administration and Governor Pataki backed a proposal by a Beijing real estate mogul to build a China Center in 7 World Trade Center, but that deal fell apart.

Before going overseas, Mr. Bloomberg will be heading south.

On Friday, the mayor will be speaking in New Orleans before the National League of Cities’ Congress of Cities. He will also visit areas of the city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and tour the USS New York, which was built with steel form the World Trade Center — and survived the hurricane.