According to the Wall Street Journal, China is outpacing the US, completing an extensive fusion technology campus and launching a national fusion consortium that includes some of its largest industrial companies.

Work crews in China operate in three shifts, essentially working around the clock to complete fusion projects.

To make matters worse the Asian superpower boasts ten times as many Ph.D.s in fusion science and engineering as the US. Most US students will not enter the sciences because they will never pay off their student debt afterwards.

 This has raised concerns among American officials and scientists that the early U.S. lead is slipping away.

JP Allain, who leads the Energy Department’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, revealed that China spends approximately $1.5 billion annually on fusion research—nearly twice the US government’s budget.

China seems to follow a programme similar to the roadmap published by hundreds of US fusion scientists and engineers in 2020, aiming for commercial fusion energy.  This plan was abandoned mainly because it was a year of tax cuts for millionaires and corporations.

Experts familiar with China’s fusion facilities warn that if the country continues at its current pace of spending and development, it could surpass the US and Europe’s magnetic fusion capabilities within just three or four years.