China Ranks U.S. 1st, Japan 3rd in Competitiveness
By wchung | 30 Mar, 2026

The Blue Book of National Competitiveness published by the China Academy of Social Sciences Monday ranked the U.S. first, EU second, Japan third and Korea fourth.

Singapore, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands, Switzerland and France, respectively, took the next six spots. China has been critical of western competitiveness studies as focusing on criteria that favor western economies and penalize Asian economies. CASS’s study is seen as putting more weight on factors that favor Asian economies.

CASS evaluated factors like economic volume, economic efficiency and structure, development potential and innovation 100 nations between 1990 and 2008. In 1990 it had ranked China 73rd. In 2008 China had moved up to 17th place. It predicts that China will rank among the top five in the G20 by 2020, compete with the U.S. and EU by 2030 and emerge with the U.S. as one of the world’s top two economiesin 2050.

In March 2006 CASS had listed the top 10 nations as U.S., Germany, Japan, the U.K., France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Canada, Italy and Belgium. Korea was ranked 20th and China 34th. At that time CASS focused on economic growth rate, per-capita GDP, exports of goods and services and labor productivity. This year its criteria were different.

The latest rankings differ from those compiled by the World Economic Forum, International Institute for Management Development and other western institutions. By contrast the World Economic Forums rankings released earlier this month named the top six nations as Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore, the U.S., Germany and Japan. It placed Koreaat 22nd and China at 27th.