Good evening. The race to harness the potential power of nuclear fusion could well determine who wins the 21st century. Over recent years U.S. and Chinese researchers have achieved technical milestones that are giving some governments and investors hope that fusion, previously described as a miracle that was “perpetually 30 years away”, could at last be within mankind’s grasp. The potential spoils of harnessing the same clean, self-perpetuating and safe energy source that powers the sun are enormous. In this week’s cover story, Eliot Chen looks at which country will get there first — America, with its long-established scientific prowess, or China, which is pursuing the prize methodically with typical state largesse?
Also in this week’s issue: The Big Picture looks at Chinese AI start-up Minimax ahead of a possible Hong Kong IPO; the Chinese crypto company with ties to President Donald Trump’s family and a Chinese firm blacklisted by the U.S. government; China’s chip design software industry; a Q&A with Janet Yellen on dealing with China; and Teng Biao and Jerome Cohen on the country’s bowed but not yet beaten human rights lawyers.
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Star Chasers
Hefei, the capital of often overlooked Anhui province, is Ground Zero for China’s efforts to realise the promise of nuclear fusion. In January scientists there achieved a milestone temperature record by heating a tube of plasma to more than 100 million degrees Celsius — a temperature more than six times hotter than the sun’s core. It was China’s riposte to an “ignition” breakthrough by U.S. researchers in 2022. The Chinese government is also building a massive new fusion research facility in Mianyang, Sichuan province. With these rival achievements and other major investments, the race to achieve fusion is well under way.
The Big Picture: MiniMax’s Moment
Minimax has reportedly filed to float its shares in Hong Kong, positioning it as potentially the next Chinese AI start-up to join a summer listing frenzy on the territory’s stock exchange. In the latest of a periodic series highlighting Chinese AI start-ups worth more than $1 billion, Noah Berman profiles the Shanghai-based firm, which prides itself on being older than ChatGPT.
Bitmain’s Trump Card
Chinese company Bitmain has become a vital part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, supplying around 80 percent of the global market for the machines used to mine bitcoin. Now, writes Noah Berman, it is expanding its footprint in the U.S., where its customers include ventures backed by members of President Trump’s family. But its American ambitions may hinge on its ability to sever its links to Xiamen Sophgo Technologies, a Chinese semiconductor design company blacklisted by Washington in January.
The Chip Catalyst
The three Western giants that dominate the chip design software market got a welcome reprieve after the Trump administration recently rolled back restrictions on exports to China. But as Rachel Cheung reports, the short-lived ban was a wake-up call for Chinese firms, prompting them to consider domestic alternatives that are determined to catch-up with the industry leaders.
A Q&A with Janet Yellen
Janet Yellen is one of the most significant U.S. economic policy officials of the last thirty years, having uniquely served under three presidents as Treasury Secretary, chair of the Federal Reserve and chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. In one of her first major interviews since leaving the Treasury in January, she talks with Bob Davis about her dealings with China in each of those roles, her concerns about where American trade policy is now headed, and her difficulties working within the Biden administration.
Janet Yellen
Illustration by Kate Copeland
A Decade After China’s Crackdown on Lawyers, Persecution and Resistance Persist
Ten years ago this month the Chinese government launched the so-called ‘709 crackdown’ targeting the country’s leading human rights lawyers, many of whom were detained and tortured. In this opinion piece, Teng Biao and Jerome Cohen write that while the repression continues, so does the brave resistance of many determined lawyers.
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