World Openness Report 2026: China’s Openness Index Rises 28.18% from 1990 to 2025

The headline number is less telling than the ranking trajectory: a one-place gain year on year sits alongside far larger jumps measured from 2008 and 1990, suggesting the steepest relative gains came earlier and the recent pace is more incremental. Framing openness as a living-standards story, via a Nobel laureate's endorsement, positions the report as a rebuttal to decoupling narratives rather than a purely statistical exercise. Whether the index's methodology and its recent single-place move carry the same weight as the long-run figures is the open question worth watching.