The US and Europe were the dominant public funders of fusion energy research and are home to many of the world’s pioneering private fusion efforts. But in the past five years China’s support of fusion energy has surged, threatening to allow the country to dominate the industry. The industrial base available to support China’s nascent fusion energy industry could enable it to climb the learning curve much faster and more effectively than the West. To compete, the US, allies, and partners must invest more heavily not only in fusion itself—which is already happening—but also in those adjacent technologies that are critical to the fusion industrial base. China’s trajectory to dominating fusion and the West’s potential route to competing can be understood by looking at today’s most promising scientific and engineering pathway to achieve grid-relevant fusion energy.