China is moving at lightning speed to secure a stranglehold over the industrial supply chain of nuclear fusion, aiming to leapfrog the US as technology advances from theoretical science to actual power for the grid.

The Communist Party has launched what amounts to a Manhattan Project to dominate the next stage of fusion, which promises to start sweeping away the existing energy order much sooner than is widely understood.

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. The US may pay a heavy price for clinging to fossil fuels. Credit: AP

Beijing is replicating the same strategy it used to wipe out global rivals in solar panels, lithium batteries, critical minerals and electric vehicles.

“China’s rise in fusion poses an existential threat to US energy dominance,” says Will Regan, founder of the US start-up Pacific Fusion.

Regan says China has deployed upwards of $US10 billion to $US13 billion ($15.2 billion to $19.7 billion) since 2023 in a systematic attempt to capture the family of specialist industries that will underpin the rollout of fusion power plants at scale.

That figure is more than the rest of the world combined over the same period – probably by a large margin.

“Their facilities are so big you can literally see them from space,” says Bob Mumgaard, chief executive of Commonwealth Fusion Systems, the West’s frontrunner in commercial fusion.

“We are hearing reports that they are working 24 hours a day with interns sleeping in cots. This is a co-ordinated, state-organised intention to win the fusion race,” he said.

Mumgaard has warned US Congress that China’s ambitions are becoming a clear and present danger to US economic and national security.

“This is a very high-stakes race worth trillions of dollars. China is positioned to win; the US isn’t,” he says.

Mumgaard says the Chinese have been pouring money on a massive scale into all the foundational structures of an active fusion industry.

“The US has nothing like this,” Mumgaard says. “Our fusion program looks like it did a decade ago. It’s fragmented, underfunded and ill-equipped and still focused on........

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