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... Image: Daniel Ceng/Anadolu/picture alliance

Donald Trump's whirlwind tour of Asia this week culminated in a much-anticipated sit down with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit hosted this year by South Korea.

So far, details of the meeting have yielded no big surprises. The US will lower tariffs in exchange for China cracking down on chemicals used to make fentanyl. Trump said China would buy "tremendous amounts" of soybeans from the US, after Beijing had cut off purchases amid an escalating trade war.

An "amazing meeting" with Xi concluded, Trump left town before the APEC summit's main event: the leaders' meeting on Friday, which Xi is expected to attend. South Korea has planned days of talks around the summit's theme "building a sustainable tomorrow."

Whether the latest truce between the US and China will be sustainable remains a question mark.

"US-China relations will remain intensely competitive, and even if a few small deals are reached and the temperature is lowered for a while, countries need to be prepared for renewed friction that could have consequences for their interests," Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the German Marshal Fund's Indo-Pacific Program, told DW. ...