A CNN reporter Tuesday expressed shock that the president of China went to Davos, Switzerland, to promote globalization — while the incoming U.S. president shuns the current construct.

Xi Jinping is the first Chinese president to attend the World Economic Forum.

“China is a free rider in the global trading system. So it’s no surprise. Of course, they’re going to defend it. Of course, they’re going to want it not to change.”

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“Here we had President Xi of China at Davos, defending globalization, while you had the president of the United States — elect, before his inauguration — offending some of the U.S.’s closet allies, like Germany,” said Richard Quest, editor at large of CNN Money. “That is a tipsy-topsy world that the people here cannot fathom.”

Quest continued.

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“I’ve never heard anything like it. The Chinese president quoted Dickens, the Gettysburg Address, Chinese proverbs and wrapped his speech up talking about the benefits of globalization in a speech that wouldn’t have embarrassed another U.S. president beside Donald Trump. So the Chinese president has stolen the clothes, if you like, on this question. And now we have China warning the United States, ‘Globalization is good. Don’t start a trade war. If you do, we will all lose.'”

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But why should it be shocking that China would be an ardent defender of globalization? Its export-dependent economy has boomed since the country joined the World Trade Organization.

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According to the World Bank, the country’s gross domestic product has risen more than tenfold, from $1.1 trillion to 11 trillion. Life expectancy is up almost 4.5 years, to 75.8. Wages have risen quickly.

“It’s just more brain-dead journalism,” U.S. Business and Industry Council President Kevin Kearns told LifeZette.

Kearns, a longtime critic of U.S. trade policy, said it should be no shock that China favors the status quo.

“China is a free rider in the global trading system,” he said. “So it’s no surprise. Of course, they’re going to defend it. Of course, they’re going to want it not to change.”