A truce has been struck in the US-China trade war but the terms of the ceasefire make clear who holds the upper hand when hostilities inevitably resume.

In exchange for the US not imposing higher tariffs on about half of Chinese exports from January 1, Beijing has agreed to discuss a long list of concessions that would, if fully implemented, fundamentally alter the very nature of the Chinese system.

According to a White House summary of the dinner meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, China has agreed in the short term to buy a “very substantial amount of agricultural energy, industrial and other product from the US”. It has also agreed to begin immediately negotiations on “structural changes with respect to forced technology transfer, intellectual property protection, non-tariff barriers, cyber intrusions and cyber theft, services and agriculture”.