Announcing the winner of the inaugural Lau-YCW essay competition… Lauren Dickey! Lauren submitted an impassioned essay on China’s water security, tracing the growing water crisis from Mao Zedong’s post-1949 development projects to Zhongnanhai’s “sponge city” pilot program. She makes a compelling case for how China’s response to water scarcity will change the world, arguing, “China’s partners and friends can learn from Beijing’s mistakes. But it is the success stories that others will emulate.”