The 5th China International Import Expo opened yesterday, with 145 countries, regions and international organizations descending on Shanghai in the hopes of selling their goods and services to Chinese buyers. Under a unique and challenging international environment, experts also met on the sidelines to discuss how open the world is in 2022.

The Hongqiao International Economic Forum is an integral part of the expo lineup and runs concurrently, with this year's themed around "stimulating opening up and the sharing cooperation opportunities."

The World Openness Report 2022 covers many current issues, including prospects of global manufacturing and financial openness, new areas of digitalization, green development and over all world openness.

It was fitting, then, that the authors of the World Openness Report 2022 used the forum to release their latest work, gathering a group of renowned experts to discuss the state of international openness, as well as the way forward.

"The original intention of the World Openness Report is to build a global consensus on openness, promote the common opening of the world, and enhance the well-being of all people on the Earth," the report notes.

Owing to the COVID-19 situation – which has changed the face of international relations for nearly three years – many of the guests took part online, including Wang Shouwen, Vice Minister of Commerce, and Gao Peiyong, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

COVID-19 made up a sizeable part of the report, which notes that the pandemic has significantly changed how countries interact and how "open" they are. "The pandemic, geopolitical tensions sparked by the Ukraine crisis, and disrupted supply chains have brought new variables and sudden changes to the world economic pattern, with more uncertainties and more contradictions and conflicts exposed," the report continues.

Wang Shouwen, China's Vice Minister of Commerce, stressed that China wishes to play a key role in the international community continuing to open up. "We will further extend a high standard trade network for the world," he said via video call. "The World Openness Report will help us get our heads around the international situation and strengthen cooperation with all peoples based on a scientific approach."

Cross-border movement has been specifically impacted because of the pandemic, significantly affecting the social aspect of world openness. The World Social Openness Index is down 7.1 percent from 2019. China's Macau was the most open socially, followed by Germany, Australia, and the United States.

Economic openness, on the other hand, was up 0.5 percent from 2019, with Singapore Hong Kong and mainland China the three most open economies.

The current geopolitical climate has some countries appearing to close off from international markets, especially along ideological lines. Many fear China is heading in the same direction, but the report asserts that is not the case. "Xi Jinping has reiterated that no matter how the international situation changes," the report notes, "China will unswervingly expand its opening up."

Gao Peiyong, Vice President of CASS, reiterated that point. "A trend in the rise of isolationism and populism has developed across the globe recently, which impedes further opening up in the world," he said at the forum. "The world should not be isolated or separated, but a community of common development," he continued, adding that only by working together can we "create a world with sustainable peace and universal security."