Premier Li Keqiang pledged that China will give the world “an anchor of stability” by maintaining domestic reform, championing economic openness, and counter the rising tide of protectionism. Li’s comment is the latest effort by Beijing to call for openness and defending globalization, in contrast to U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America first” agenda. “This is a testing time,” Li wrote in the latest edition of Bloomberg Businessweek. “Above all, we remain convinced that economic openness serves the interests of everyone better, at home and abroad.” “It’s far preferable for countries to trade goods and services and bond through investment partnerships than to trade barbs and build barriers.” The remarks echoed President Xi Jinping’s speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos earlier this month, in which he said globalization should not be blamed for the Syrian refugee crisis and financial problems. China is widely considered to be a major beneficiary of economic globalization. Since joining to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, its export-oriented growth model lead the country’s economic take-off in the first few years of the new millennium to become the world’s top exporter. Although the Trump administration has yet to address China issues, his decisions to withdraw from TPP, revoke Obamacare and build a wall along the Mexican border point to further trade frictions, if not a full-scale trade war, the South China Morning Post reports.