分类： science

In a landmark breakthrough for lunar exploration, a team of Chinese scientists has made a significant new contribution to global planetary science: the discovery of two previously unknown lunar minerals, sourced from the precious lunar surface samples retrieved by China’s Chang’e 5 mission. The announcement of the find, first reported by China Daily and updated on April 24, 2026, marks another key milestone for China’s expanding deep space exploration program, adding new concrete data to the international scientific community’s understanding of the Moon’s geological composition and formation history.

Chang’e 5, China’s first mission to successfully collect and return lunar samples to Earth, touched down on the northern region of the Moon’s Oceanus Procellarum in late 2020, bringing back roughly 1.7 kilograms of volcanic basalt and regolith from a previously unsampled young region of the lunar surface. These samples have been the subject of ongoing, rigorous analysis by Chinese planetary scientists in the years following their return, with the latest discovery opening new avenues for research into lunar volcanic activity and the evolution of the inner solar system.

The identification of two new mineral species is a rare and notable achievement in lunar science, as most lunar minerals have already been cataloged from previous Soviet sample-return missions and Apollo program specimens collected in the 1960s and 1970s. This discovery makes China the third country in the world to successfully identify a new lunar mineral from returned samples, underscoring the rapid progress of the nation’s space science capabilities beyond Earth’s orbit. It also aligns with broader planned advancements in China’s deep space exploration roadmap, which includes the upcoming Tianwen 3 mission scheduled to retrieve samples from Mars by approximately 2031, as outlined in recently updated mission plans shared by Chinese space authorities.

Scientific communities around the world have repeatedly emphasized the value of new lunar sample data, particularly from the young geologic region sampled by Chang’e 5. This new discovery is expected to support ongoing research into the timing of the Moon’s volcanic cooling, the distribution of resources across the lunar surface, and the origins of impact events that have shaped the Earth-Moon system over billions of years. The find also highlights the critical role that sample-return missions play in advancing human knowledge of planetary bodies, complementing data gathered by remote sensing orbiters and rover missions.

In a landmark breakthrough for planetary science, Chinese researchers have confirmed the discovery of a previously unknown lunar mineral from the first lunar meteorite ever recovered within China’s borders, a finding that pushes global lunar material knowledge to new heights. This newly recognized substance, now the 11th confirmed lunar mineral documented across the world, brings China’s total count of identified lunar minerals to four — tying the country with the United States for the highest number of lunar mineral discoveries globally.

Officially named Magnesiochangesite-(Ce), the new mineral has received full formal approval from the International Mineralogical Association’s Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification, the globally recognized governing body that verifies and formalizes the naming of all newly identified minerals. Geochemically classified as a rare-earth-bearing phosphate, Magnesiochangesite-(Ce) displays distinct physical traits that set it apart from other known lunar materials: it is colorless, transparent, and carries a bright glass-like luster. It is characteristically brittle, forms distinctive shell-like fractures when broken, and emits visible fluorescence when exposed to ultraviolet light, properties that helped researchers isolate and confirm its identity.

The mineral was extracted from Pakepake 005, the 44-gram spherical lunar meteorite recovered by Chinese researchers in 2024 from the Taklamakan Desert, located in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The stone’s dark outer fusion crust, a signature feature of meteorites formed when friction superheats the rock’s surface during its high-speed passage through Earth’s atmosphere, confirmed its extraterrestrial origin before detailed analysis began.

Wang Yanjuan, a doctoral graduate at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and the lead researcher who first identified the new mineral, emphasized the far-reaching scientific value of the finding. “This discovery provides critical mineralogical evidence that helps us unpack the moon’s origin and long-term evolutionary history, and it expands the overall boundaries of human understanding of the material composition of our solar system,” Wang explained. She added that analysis of the mineral’s unique crystal structure and precise chemical composition is already yielding new insights into ancient lunar volcanic activity, as well as the geochemical processes that drive rare-earth element separation during planetary formation. Even beyond planetary science, Wang noted that the mineral’s unusual luminescent properties could inform the development of innovative new luminescent materials for industrial and commercial use.

A key enabling factor behind this discovery, researchers note, is China’s domestic development of high-precision scientific instrumentation. Che Xiaochao, an associate researcher at the Planetary Science Research Center of the Institute of Geology under the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, explained that the analysis of the rare meteorite sample relied on a domestically developed high-resolution secondary ion mass spectrometer. Unlike traditional analytical methods that require dissolving or altering valuable samples, this instrument uses a tightly focused ion beam to map surface composition at the microscopic level without damaging the specimen. “This process is analogous to doing a CT scan of the rock,” Che explained. “Without altering or dissolving the sample, we can accurately capture its internal chemical information and precisely measure nearly all elements and isotopes it contains.” Che also highlighted that the technology has broader cross-sector applications, including use in semiconductor manufacturing and new energy materials development.

Yang Zhiming, director of the Institute of Geology, stressed that access to advanced, domestically controlled instrumentation is foundational to advancing cutting-edge research on rare extraterrestrial samples. He added that the same domestic high-resolution instrument has already been used to analyze lunar samples collected by China’s Chang’e 6 mission, as well as other samples from the country’s first domestic lunar meteorite recovery. The breakthrough, Yang noted, underscores the critical importance of developing and mastering core scientific equipment and analytical techniques domestically to expand global and national planetary research capabilities.

To mark China’s annual Space Day, which fell on Thursday this year, a groundbreaking immersive exhibition focused on China’s far side of the Moon exploration missions opened to the public at the China Science and Technology Museum in Beijing on April 24, 2026. Jointly organized by the China Science and Technology Museum and the China National Space Administration, the showcase blends traditional artifact displays with cutting-edge large-scale virtual reality (VR) experiences to offer visitors a one-of-a-kind journey through China’s decades-long lunar exploration program. Unlike standard science exhibitions that rely on static displays, this dual-format event invites guests not only to view landmark technological achievements, but also to step into the landscape of the Moon themselves.

Among the physical exhibits on display are two key examples of China’s indigenous aerospace innovation: the high-strength, high-toughness steel developed entirely in China for Chang’e series lunar spacecraft, and a decommissioned rocket engine. These tangible artifacts serve as concrete proof of the major leaps forward China has made in space technology over the past two decades. Complementing these core pieces, the exhibition also features high-resolution satellite imagery captured during actual lunar missions, original documentary footage of mission operations, and ultra-high-precision scale models of Chang’e spacecraft. Curators arranged these materials to trace the full evolutionary timeline of China’s lunar exploration program, breaking down complex scientific principles and critical technological breakthroughs that made far side lunar exploration accessible for a general audience.

The centerpiece of the showcase is the dedicated VR zone, built using real, authenticated data from China’s past lunar exploration missions to deliver a hyper-accurate simulated experience. This immersive zone lets visitors step into a hypothetical 2049 mission to the Tianshu Base located at the lunar south pole, a long-term goal outlined in China’s deep space exploration roadmap. Guests can walk through every step of a full lunar mission: from feeling the rumble of a rocket launch, to transitioning between Earth and Moon orbits, completing a lunar spacewalk, and conducting the first crewed landing on the lunar surface. The simulation also recreates the harsh natural conditions of the lunar environment, including visual renderings of meteorite impacts, cosmic radiation bursts, and intense solar storms, giving visitors a realistic sense of the challenges that deep space exploration poses.

Running through August 16, the exhibition was developed with a core outreach goal: to ignite widespread public enthusiasm for space science, exploration, and technological innovation, particularly among children and young people who are the future of China’s space program.

For decades, cosmologists have grappled with a fundamental challenge: how to reconstruct 13.8 billion years of cosmic evolution to test leading theories about dark matter, dark energy, and the origins of the large-scale structures that fill our universe. Now, a Chinese-led international research collaboration has delivered a groundbreaking tool to address that gap, unveiling HyperMillennium, the largest and most detailed cosmological simulation ever created. The project, which has already drawn praise from leading global astrophysicists, promises to reshape the future of cosmological research and support next-generation sky survey missions around the world.

HyperMillennium is far more than a simple digital model of the cosmos. Enclosed in a virtual cube measuring 12 billion light-years on each edge, the simulation tracks the gravitational interactions of 4.2 trillion virtual dark matter particles across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Using a well-established N-body numerical simulation technique, the team started their virtual model just moments after the Big Bang, then step-by-step traced how gravity pulled dark matter into the filamentous web of large-scale structures we observe in the modern universe. This digital replica of the cosmos allows researchers to rewind cosmic time, study the gradual formation of galaxies and galaxy clusters, and generate a comprehensive catalog of key galactic properties including positions, brightness, and structural traits when integrated with specialized galaxy formation physical models.

According to Wang Qiao, a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), the project breaks new ground in three critical areas: force resolution, time accuracy, and overall computational scale. Unlike previous smaller simulations, HyperMillennium retains strong statistical power across its entire volume while enabling researchers to examine extremely rare, massive cosmic structures in unprecedented fine detail. This makes it a uniquely valuable tool for testing core theories that have shaped modern cosmology.

Pulling off a simulation of this magnitude required overcoming massive computational hurdles. Instead of relying on off-the-shelf software, the research team spent more than a decade developing and optimizing PhotoNs, a custom piece of code built specifically to run on China’s domestic supercomputing infrastructure. The final simulation ran on more than 10,000 accelerator cards, consuming over 100 million CPU core-hours and 10 million accelerator-card hours to generate roughly 13 petabytes of raw and processed data — a volume equivalent to thousands of high-definition feature films.

The breakthrough has already earned widespread acclaim from the international scientific community. Mike Boylan-Kolchin, a professor of astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin, described HyperMillennium as a true computational marvel. He noted that its unprecedented size and resolution will position it as a foundational reference for cosmological research across the globe for decades to come, helping researchers finally unlock long-held mysteries about dark energy and the conditions of the early universe. Volker Springel, director of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany, added that the project redefines the outer limits of what is possible in numerical cosmology. Springel said he was extremely impressed by the team’s ability to deliver such a large, highly accurate simulation, which will enable new high-precision tests of the standard cosmological model — the leading framework for understanding the origin and evolution of the universe.

The first peer-reviewed research paper from the HyperMillennium project was published recently in *Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society*, one of the field’s most prestigious journals. In a key validation test, the team compared the simulation’s output to real observational data of Abell 2744, a massive colliding galaxy cluster located roughly 4 billion light-years from Earth. The match between the simulation and real observation was remarkable, even down to the pixel level, confirming that the standard cosmological model holds up even in the most extreme, complex cosmic environments.

In a move that opens the project up to researchers worldwide, NAOC has already released the first batch of HyperMillennium simulation data to the global scientific community via the National Astronomical Data Center, a public platform dedicated to supporting open astronomy research, education, and data-driven scientific innovation. This open access policy ensures that researchers across the world can leverage the unprecedented power of HyperMillennium to advance their own work into the origins and nature of our universe.

In 2026, the global space community marks a historic milestone: the 70th anniversary of China’s ambitious space program, a decades-long venture that has transformed the country from a latecomer in space exploration to a leading global player in the final frontier.

Across these 70 years, China has steadfastly pursued a trajectory of development rooted in independent innovation, turning early limitations in infrastructure and technical knowledge into world-leading expertise through consistent investment, domestic research, and a long-term vision for cosmic discovery. Unlike many space-faring nations that relied on international collaboration in their formative stages, China chose to build its space ecosystem from the ground up, nurturing homegrown talent, developing proprietary launch and exploration technologies, and setting incremental, achievable goals that built a strong foundation for more ambitious missions later.

The journey began in 1970 with the breakthrough launch of Dongfanghong 1, China’s first indigenously developed and built satellite. That successful orbital insertion marked China’s formal entry into the space age, proving that the country could design, build, and launch a functional satellite entirely on its own. In the decades that followed, each new achievement built on the last: the nation mastered human spaceflight, becoming only the third country in the world to independently launch crewed missions to orbit, and established a permanent space station that now hosts regular scientific research from international partners. More recently, landmark lunar exploration missions, including the Yutu rover that gave the anniversary celebration its namesake, have delivered unprecedented data about the far side of the Moon, a region of the lunar surface that had remained unstudied for the entire history of space exploration before China’s Chang’e 4 mission.

Today, as the nation reflects on 70 years of progress, China’s space program stands as a testament to the power of sustained commitment to scientific innovation, opening new avenues for international collaboration while continuing to push the boundaries of human knowledge about our solar system and beyond.

Situated on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the source region of China’s Yellow River holds outsized ecological importance as a core component of the “Asian Water Tower,” a vast high-altitude system that feeds water to billions across Asia. Dense with glaciers and permafrost, this fragile cryospheric landscape is disproportionately sensitive to global climate shifts, with rising temperatures steadily accelerating glacial retreat and permafrost thaw. As this thaw progresses, massive volumes of organic carbon that have been locked away as solid sequestration for centuries are being released into surrounding watersheds, creating ripple effects that alter regional carbon and nitrogen cycles and threaten downstream ecological stability.

Against this backdrop, a team of Chinese researchers from the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources (NIEER) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences has completed a groundbreaking new study focused on untangling the dynamics of dissolved organic matter in this critical high-altitude basin, filling long-standing gaps in global biogeochemical data for cold mountain regions.

Led by NIEER researcher Niu Hewen, the project carried out three years of continuous in-situ observations between 2019 and 2022, compiling one of the most comprehensive datasets to date on dissolved organic carbon, dissolved organic nitrogen, and total dissolved nitrogen across rainfall, river, and groundwater systems in the Yellow River’s source zone.

The team’s analysis yielded several key findings that challenge previous broad assumptions about alpine river carbon dynamics on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The study confirmed that dissolved organic carbon concentrations in the Yellow River’s alpine headwaters are significantly lower than the regional average for other alpine rivers across the plateau, with clear and pronounced seasonal fluctuations tied to temperature patterns. Concentrations reach their annual peak during the summer glacial and permafrost ablation period, when 72% of dissolved organic matter in river waters consists of terrestrial humic-like substances eroded from thawed permafrost and glacial deposits. By contrast, groundwater in the region is dominated by microbial protein-like substances, which make up 82% of its dissolved organic matter profile.

Further calculations from the research show that the Yellow River source region transports more than 100,000 metric tonnes of dissolved organic carbon downstream to lower basin areas every year, with 56% of this annual export occurring between May and October, aligned with warmer summer temperatures and peak ablation.

According to Niu, the study confirms that ongoing climate warming is driving a fundamental shift in the region’s carbon cycle, transforming cryospheric organic carbon from long-term solid sequestration to active, dynamic output that increases the volume of carbon and nitrogen exported through the river system dramatically.

The research team notes that these new findings do more than just advance scientific understanding of carbon cycling mechanisms on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, one of the world’s most important high-altitude carbon sinks. The compiled dataset and observed dynamics also provide a robust, evidence-based foundation to guide ecological conservation, sustainable water resource management, and climate change adaptation planning across the entire Yellow River basin, supporting long-term ecological and water security for communities that depend on the river system.

BEIJING — To strengthen long-term grassland ecological conservation across the country, China has established 167 national-level field observation and research stations dedicated to monitoring grassland ecosystems, a leading grassland science expert announced Tuesday at a Beijing press conference hosted by the State Council Information Office.

Xin Xiaoping, director of the National Observation and Research Station for Grassland Ecosystems located in China’s northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region’s Hulun Buir, outlined that these specialized stations serve as core infrastructure supporting both China’s national ecological civilization initiative and large-scale ecological disaster prevention and mitigation work.

Describing the unique function of these field sites, Xin compared them to the human body’s sensory receptors, saying: “Just as hands can sense warmth and cold, the stations act as permanent outposts that let us detect and track subtle changes in grassland ecosystems in real time.”

At Xin’s own Hulun Buir station, researchers have collected 30 years of uninterrupted observational data, amassing more than 20 million structured records. This massive long-term dataset has fundamentally reshaped scientific and public understanding of grassland biodiversity in the ecologically critical Hulun Buir region, one of China’s largest temperate grasslands. Beyond data collection, the station has conducted dozens of targeted research projects to pinpoint the root causes of grassland degradation and develop evidence-based, locally tailored restoration strategies.

The national observation network also functions as a real-world testbed and demonstration zone for cutting-edge ecological technologies. Last year, for example, the world’s first integrated grazing robot and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) monitoring system was deployed and tested at the Hulun Buir station. “These stations are exactly where we can test how new scientific and technological advances can deliver tangible benefits to local herdsmen,” Xin explained.

Xin’s research team has already scaled up proven grassland restoration technologies across a 100,000 mu (equivalent to roughly 6,667 hectares) demonstration area in Hulun Buir. Initial results from the project show a dramatic 200 to 600 percent increase in grass yield within the restored zone, marking a major success for both ecological recovery and local pastoral productivity.

In addition to their core research and ecological functions, the network of stations serves as a collaborative bridge between the scientific community and public stakeholders. They operate as open research platforms supporting hundreds of domestic universities and research institutions, have trained generations of early-career ecologists focused on grassland conservation, and provide evidence-based policy recommendations to guide national and regional grassland management decision-making.

For years, Chinese researchers have watched a growing share of their precious public research funding flow not into lab experiments, equipment or fieldwork, but into the pocket of international academic publishers in the form of soaring article processing charges (APCs) for open-access publications. Now, the country is rolling out a sweeping set of reforms to its scientific research evaluation and funding systems, designed to redirect that money back to actual experimental work and boost the overall quality of Chinese scientific output.

The shift comes as the global academic publishing industry has undergone a major structural transformation over the past two decades. Traditionally, publishing operated under a subscription model, where institutions and readers paid to access published research, and authors bore no cost to submit or publish their work. The move to open access was intended to tear down paywalls, making cutting-edge scientific research freely available to scholars, clinicians and the public worldwide to speed up knowledge dissemination. But under the dominant open-access model today, the costs of publishing are shifted entirely to authors, and APCs have climbed steadily year after year, putting an unsustainable strain on research budgets.

Data from the National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) underscores the scale of the financial drain. In 2024 alone, the average APC for a single article published in an international open-access journal exceeded $3,000. Chinese scholars contributed nearly one-third of all open-access articles published globally that year, totaling 313,500 papers, and collectively spent more than $909 million on APCs — a 20% year-over-year jump in total spending.

Many researchers argue that this situation amounts to Chinese public research funding effectively subsidizing large international publishing groups, and the systemic impact goes far beyond drained budgets. High APCs entrench existing academic hierarchies, they say, widening gaps in academic discourse power along financial lines: well-funded labs can afford to publish dozens of papers a year, while early-career researchers and teams working at smaller institutions are locked out of high-profile publishing opportunities simply because they cannot cover the fees. Even for established teams, the rising costs eat directly into resources for core research.

A graduate student at CAS’s Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology told China Central Television that when APCs eat up a large chunk of a research project’s total budget, there is no way to avoid cuts to the experimental work that is the core of scientific progress.

Prominent CAS academician Yan Ning has been one of the most vocal critics of the current system. Late last year, she took to Chinese social platform Weibo to point out that while the open-access model was founded on good intentions, APCs have grown to excessive levels. Her lab has stopped paying publication fees for journals that charge exorbitant APCs, she said, instead sharing new work as freely available preprints and only publishing in formal journals if fee waivers are granted.

“It feels like researchers are being exploited, making us suffer. Why should the funding we apply for be taken by middlemen?” Yan told CCTV, noting that most major publishing groups are publicly traded companies driven first by commercial profit. She called for efforts to restore a healthy, equitable publishing ecosystem that serves the global academic community, rather than shareholder interests.

To break the current deadlock, China is pursuing two interconnected tracks of reform: curbing unreasonable spending on international journal fees, and building up a robust, high-quality ecosystem of domestic open-access academic journals that serve researchers worldwide. One notable new entry is *Vita*, a new open-access journal focused on life sciences and biomedicine, which will launch its print edition in June 2026. The journal’s main content is freely accessible to researchers globally, and the first paper published online in *Vita* comes from Yan Ning’s own research team.

In a landmark policy shift that drew global academic attention, CAS stopped covering APCs for 30 major international open-access journals — including high-profile titles such as *Nature Communications*, *Cell Reports* and *Science Advances* — using academic funds and central government allocations starting in March 2026, according to the journal *Science*. The policy also prohibits reimbursement for APCs for any articles published in journals suspected of academic misconduct, with the dual goals of strengthening oversight of academic publishing and bringing charges down to reasonable levels.

Additional national policies have been introduced to encourage researchers to prioritize high-quality work over publication in high-fee international journals, and to support the growth of domestic academic publishing. Revised guidelines for national science and technology awards, issued by the Ministry of Science and Technology, call for a gradual increase in the weight given to major research publications published in domestic Chinese journals. The National Natural Science Foundation of China has introduced a new requirement for all projects funded starting in 2025: at least 20% of a project’s representative research papers must be published in domestic journals to meet funding requirements.

At the institutional level, many leading Chinese universities are revising their faculty evaluation and recruitment criteria to move away from an overreliance on publication metrics like impact factor and total paper count, creating a more flexible, supportive environment for long-term original research. Tsinghua University now asks faculty to submit up to five works that best represent their actual academic standing — which can include papers, monographs or patents — rather than rewarding quantity or impact factor rankings. Fudan University has launched a special pilot zone for basic research, providing long-term support for original work for up to 10 years with minimal disruptive interim evaluations.

Zhao Dongyuan, a CAS academician and dean of Fudan University’s Xianghui Academy, emphasized the transformative impact of these new evaluation models in an interview with CCTV. “Over a 10-year period, instead of formal high-stakes evaluations, we organize regular salons and academic activities where researchers present their ongoing work. These presentations allow us to observe the progress of their research firsthand,” Zhao explained. “By fostering such a supportive research environment, we enable them to pursue ambitious work and achieve significant breakthroughs that would not be possible under a pressure-driven, metric-heavy evaluation system.”

The long-standing strategic competition between China and the United States has expanded beyond high-profile domains like artificial intelligence and space exploration into a new frontier: fusion energy, a game-changing power source widely hailed as a near-limitless, zero-carbon solution to the global climate crisis. Both nations are racing to scale domestic fusion capabilities and lock in resilient supply chains to support future commercial reactor deployment, and both have turned to Europe for its irreplaceable expertise in core fusion technologies ranging from superconducting magnets and high-power lasers to advanced robotics and tokamak design—expertise that is critical to moving fusion from small-scale laboratory research to full-grid commercial operation.

Tokamaks, the most widely tested magnetic confinement fusion design, are doughnut-shaped chambers that use intense magnetic fields to contain superheated plasma heated to hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius, the core condition required to sustain a fusion reaction. But as Washington and Beijing both court European partnership, the global fusion community remains deeply divided over how Europe should navigate the growing US-China rivalry in this sector. Some experts urge European stakeholders to align exclusively with the United States, arguing that denying China access to advanced fusion technology is critical to preventing Beijing from gaining an edge that could reshape the existing global geopolitical order. Others counter that the extraordinary technical complexity of commercial fusion development demands broad, inclusive international collaboration—including active participation from China.

One of the most prominent voices calling for open international partnership is Laban Coblentz, chief strategic advisor to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the world’s largest multinational fusion megaproject hosted in southern France. In an interview with Asia Times in London, Coblentz pointed to China’s track record of large-scale nuclear infrastructure delivery to illustrate the benefits of integrating global supply chains: China completed construction of its 1,000-megawatt Hualong-1 third-generation fission reactor in just five years for $5 billion, a timeline and cost that outpaces most comparable projects in the United States and Europe. What many observers miss, he noted, is that 140 French firms are embedded in the Hualong-1 supply chain, a clear example of how cross-border collaboration drives efficient, affordable progress.

Coblentz also voiced hope that upcoming talks between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, scheduled for mid-May in China, will break down existing trade and technology barriers and shift the relationship from pure competition to complementary collaboration. His remarks referenced ongoing contract negotiation challenges between ITER and American firms, where trade barriers have created unnecessary delays and added costs. During a speech at the Fusion Industry event organized by Economist Impact on April 14, Coblentz shared a surprising anecdote about US Senator Joe Manchin, a prominent critic of Chinese technology policy who has publicly accused Chinese scientists of intellectual property theft from US research labs. After touring the ITER assembly hall in 2022, Manchin told a gathering of 30 US ITER staff that he saw, for the first time in years, a “light at the end of the tunnel” for global energy security, and even a path to long-term world peace. Manchin noted that many historical conflicts have been rooted in competition over energy access, and observed that the ITER site brings together scientists and engineers speaking Mandarin, French, Italian, English, Russian and dozens of other languages—proof that if fusion succeeds, it could fundamentally rewrite the rules of global geopolitics.

ITER, the foundational global fusion project, traces its origins back to 1986, when Euratom, Japan, the Soviet Union and the United States agreed to co-design a large-scale international fusion test facility. Concept development began in 1988, with the final design approved in 2001, laying the groundwork for one of the most ambitious international scientific collaborations in modern history. Construction launched in 2013 with an initial budget of 6 billion euros ($6.8 billion), but costs have ballooned far beyond initial projections: ITER’s official 2021 estimate put total costs at roughly 22 billion euros, while the US Department of Energy projects total costs could reach $65 billion by 2039, the current target date for full fusion operations. The European Union covers 45.6% of ITER’s total costs, with China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States each contributing approximately 9.1%.

Despite the long history of multinational collaboration on ITER, a growing cohort of US experts are warning that the West risks falling behind China’s rapid fusion expansion, pointing to China’s close diplomatic and trade ties with US adversaries including Russia, Iran and North Korea. Ylli Bajraktari, president and CEO of the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a non-partisan US think tank, used an address at the same Fusion Fest event to warn that the West is at risk of repeating the same mistakes it made in other emerging clean energy sectors, where China now holds dominant global market share.

“China didn’t create the original scientific breakthroughs for electric vehicles, solar panels or 5G infrastructure, but they prioritized government subsidies and scaled manufacturing capacity rapidly, and that strategy paid off massively,” Bajraktari argued. “China didn’t scale solar manufacturing just to hit net-zero emissions targets; they sold panels at below production cost to lock in global economic dependence. The same scenario will play out in fusion if the US and EU don’t move quickly and coordinate closely.”

Bajraktari noted that since the Lawrence Livermore National Ignition Facility achieved the first net energy gain from fusion three years ago, China has invested $6.5 billion in new fusion infrastructure—with independent analysts putting the actual figure as high as $10 to $13 billion, a level of spending that outpaces current US investment. He outlined four major public projects that form the backbone of China’s national fusion strategy: the Chinese Fusion Engineering Testing Reactor (CRAFT) and Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (BEST) in Hefei, Anhui, an integrated research campus designed to move from component testing to grid-connected net fusion power demonstration by the end of this decade; the Xinghuo fission-fusion hybrid reactor in Nanchang, Jiangxi, which targets 100 megawatts of output by the early 2030s; the Shengguang-IV laser fusion facility in Mianyang, Sichuan, a large inertial confinement fusion facility estimated to be far larger than the US National Ignition Facility; and the long-running Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in Hefei, which has repeatedly set global records for plasma confinement and serves as the anchor of China’s domestic fusion research program.

Beyond large-scale test facilities, Bajraktari emphasized that China is also investing heavily across the entire fusion supply chain: scaling domestic production of high-temperature superconductors for fusion magnets, tightening export controls on critical raw materials including gallium and germanium, securing long-term access to copper and other key resources through overseas investment, and expanding domestic capacity in precision manufacturing and advanced components. “Control of the fusion supply chain is an existential threat to the West’s long-term energy future,” he said. “We can’t outcompete China by copying their state-driven model. For the West to succeed, we need to collaborate across our allied bloc.” Bajraktari outlined a proposed allied division of labor that leverages each partner’s existing strengths: the United Kingdom leads in magnetic confinement and radiation-resistant robotics, the US in inertial confinement, beryllium supply and venture-backed private innovation, Germany in laser technology, and Japan in high-performance superconductors. “It’s time to stop treating fusion like a distant academic science project,” he said. “It’s no longer a curiosity. We need to take it as seriously as China does—this is critical national infrastructure that we have to build.”

Global fusion development currently follows two primary technical pathways: magnetic confinement fusion (MCF) and inertial confinement fusion (ICF). MCF is the more mature approach, which includes tokamak and stellarator designs: tokamaks use magnetic fields in a doughnut-shaped chamber to contain and heat plasma, while stellarators use complex twisted coils to achieve more stable long-term plasma confinement. ICF, by contrast, uses high-energy lasers or particle beams to rapidly compress and heat fusion fuel pellets to trigger the reaction, a pathway pursued most prominently at the US National Ignition Facility.

China’s state-led fusion program pursues a diversified portfolio across both pathways, with active projects in tokamaks, stellarators and inertial confinement systems. Its EAST project, often nicknamed the “artificial sun,” made global headlines in January 2025 when it sustained plasma at 100 million degrees Celsius for 1,066 seconds, a new world record for fusion plasma confinement. The EAST program aligns closely with research at France’s WEST tokamak, which tests tungsten plasma-facing components and steady-state plasma conditions to support ITER development. As a core ITER member, China has not only absorbed European tokamak technology through the project but has also emerged as a key supplier of large-scale critical components: in April 2025, China shipped key oversize components for ITER’s tokamak magnet feeder system to the project site in southern France.

In contrast to China’s state-driven model, the US Department of Energy supports a market-driven approach that prioritizes funding for private fusion firms. Current US funding supports projects including Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ tokamak development, Type One Energy Group’s stellarator program, and Xcimer Energy’s laser-based inertial confinement fusion work. Jennifer Arrigo, senior adviser for fusion energy sciences at the US Department of Energy, acknowledged that China is a major global fusion player but emphasized that the West’s core advantage lies in dynamic public-private collaboration. “China is one of the big players in this space, but if you look at the innovation ecosystem across the US and Europe, the partnership between private industry and government is just as powerful,” Arrigo said. “It’s critical that we support our domestic industry and lead on inclusive international collaboration with our allies. That’s how we win the fusion race—by keeping it a global endeavor with the US at the center of that effort.”

In comments to Asia Times, Arrigo added that a core goal of the US Fusion Science and Technology Roadmap, launched in October 2025, is to build out a diversified domestic and allied supply chain. The Department of Energy is currently working with fusion-related private firms, supporting university spinouts and expanding domestic industrial capacity, with the explicit goal of reducing reliance on Chinese parts, components and services and securing alternative supply sources across the US and its allied partners.

Last month, Duan Xuru, chief scientist for fusion energy at China National Nuclear Corporation, noted that global commercial fusion development is accelerating faster than many forecasts predicted. Following China’s phased, risk-mitigation strategy, the country aims to complete its first full-scale engineering test reactor by around 2035 and a full commercial demonstration reactor by approximately 2045, putting it on track to be one of the first nations to deploy grid-connected commercial fusion power.