How China became an innovation powerhouse

MOST startups need time to prove that they can be trusted with investors’ money, let alone dangerous technologies. But not Fusion Energy Tech, a Chinese company in the city of Hefei that was carved out two years ago from a nuclear-research lab.

In July, it announced that it would be commercialising a plasma technology derived from fusing the nuclei of atoms, which produces a reaction much hotter than the sun. It has already developed a security-screening device using related technology that is popping up in local metro stations. Commuters walk past them every day.

Xi Jinping, China’s supreme leader, is fixated on beating the West in new technologies. Chinese companies already dominate areas including electric vehicles (EVs) and lithium batteries, and are fast taking the lead in emerging fields such as humanoid robots.