Editor's note: As China moves toward the 15th Five-Year Plan, newly released recommendations outline major directions for science and technology, ecological civilization and future industries. Against this policy backdrop, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on Monday held a meeting to analyze and study the economic work of 2026, while emphasizing a strong start of the 15th Five-Year Plan.

As part of a special series, CGTN invites experts and industry leaders to interpret the policy implications in areas that will shape China's high-quality development. In this article, Duan Xuru, chief scientist at China National Nuclear Corporation, discusses how China will advance fusion energy research and the steps toward achieving commercial fusion power in the coming decades. The article has been adapted for clarity and to fit CGTN style. The views expressed are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of CGTN.

Energy lies at the core of human civilization and remains a strategic cornerstone for national development. Among the next generation of energy technologies, controlled nuclear fusion – often referred to as the "artificial sun" because it replicates the reactions powering the sun – has emerged as a major frontier of global scientific competition. With abundant fuel sources, inherent safety, environmental friendliness and the absence of long-lived radioactive waste, fusion is widely regarded as one of the most promising solutions for the world's future energy needs. 

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee laid out China's development blueprint for the upcoming 15th Five-Year Plan, calling for forward-looking deployment of future industries and explicitly identifying fusion energy as a potential new engine of economic growth. This provides clear strategic direction for China's energy transition and its broader push toward building China as a scientific and technological powerhouse. 

As the national team leading China's fusion research, the Southwestern Institute of Physics under the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) has long aligned its mission to national priorities. China has made a historic leap in fusion R&D, progressing from a stage of technological follow-up to parallel development – and, in several areas, global leadership. 

The institute has built a series of cutting-edge experimental platforms, including China's new-generation "artificial sun" Huanliu-3 (HL-3) tokamak. Over the past year, HL-3 recorded major breakthroughs, having achieved a plasma state with ion temperatures of 117 million degrees Celsius and electron temperatures of 160 million degrees, edging closer to the extreme conditions required to ignite fusion.

China's progress has been accompanied by deeper participation in global fusion governance. As an equal partner in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, China has undertaken several essential R&D and manufacturing tasks and played an important role in promoting global standardization efforts, including the publication of the world's first international standard in the fusion field in 2023. 

In October, the International Atomic Energy Agency established its first global Collaborating Center for Fusion Energy Research and Training in southwest China's Chengdu, marking China's evolution from an active participant to a key driver in global fusion cooperation. Despite this momentum, challenges persist, including intensified global competition for talent and barriers to open technical exchange. China will continue strengthening joint research, expanding talent-training programs and promoting an open, collaborative and shared global innovation ecosystem.

Moving fusion from laboratory research to practical application requires a highly efficient and integrated innovation system. Strengthening deep cooperation across the industry–academia–research–application chain is essential. CNNC has initiated a national fusion innovation consortium to bring together multiple partners, accelerating progress toward engineering-scale verification and eventual commercial deployment. Fusion research also generates valuable technological spillovers in areas such as superconducting materials, plasma control, high-power electronics and advanced manufacturing. These developments help foster a healthy innovation cycle and strengthen the industry's long-term growth capability.

China's fusion program has already established a solid technical foundation and is moving steadily toward constructing an engineering test reactor and, subsequently, a commercial demonstration reactor. Current plans envision achieving China's first fusion plasma experiment by 2027, developing full design capabilities for the country's first engineering test reactor around 2030 and completing construction of that reactor around 2035. By the middle of the century, fusion-generated electricity could become part of China's national energy system. 

Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China's fusion research will continue to prioritize innovation-driven development, advancing key milestones such as the 2027 fusion plasma experiment while accelerating paradigm shifts enabled by high-temperature superconductors, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. China will promote wider application of fusion-related technological achievements, strengthen coordinated development across the full innovation chain and make full use of international cooperation platforms such as the new IAEA center and the innovation consortium. Through sustained innovation and global collaboration, the dream of bringing an "artificial sun" to power human society is moving ever closer to reality.