This initial chapter of the transparency section introduces readers to the major openness policies in China over the course of the reform era, paying special attention to the most prominent example – the Open Government Information (OGI) regulations, implemented nationwide in 2008, which mandated the publication of documents across Chinese agencies and also created a mechanism for citizens to request government information. The chapter describes the underlying factors that motivated transparency reforms and chronicles key debates at the national and local levels. A critical theme that emerges is that central officials, despite lofty rhetoric, had an instrumental incentive for supporting greater transparency; they saw it as a necessary tool for policing the misuse of public expenditures in far-flung localities.