The world’s most populous country has begun to shrink: China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported a decline in its population of nearly one million people in 2o22. This is the first year where China's birth rate was at a net negative since the Great Leap Forward: an economic experiment that resulted in widespread famine in the 1960s. There are three factors which contribute to China’s declining populations: lasting consequences of the one-child policy, changing attitudes towards marriage and childbirth, and the expenses associated with raising children.

Mongolia is a sparsely populated country situated between two global superpowers, bordering China to the north and Russia to the south. Mongolia- a country with a nomadic culture- is the next nation to join the digital revolution. In 2020, the Mongolian government laid out its five-year plan to build a “Digital Nation”.

Nearly three years into the pandemic, China is sticking with strict COVID-19 containment policies that have led to a string of lockdowns around the nation, economic damage, and widespread frustration among Chinese citizens. As reported by researchers at Oxford University who developed the Oxford Coronavirus Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) to measure the strictness of government policies, China currently has the strictest containment measures. The Chinese government has yet to announce when or how it will ease its restrictions; how will China exit its zero-Covid policy?