Abstract: Due to the increasingly intensive impact of population growth and economy development, energy shortage is becoming more and more severe, so countries around the world are searching for substitutes for the fossil energy resources of coal, oil and gas. Nuclear fusion energy, characterized by its cleanness, high efficiency and inexhaustibility, is considered to be one of the most possible ways to solve the energy problem. This paper outlines the importance of the development of fusion energy and reviews the history of magnetic confinement fusion research, with a brief introduction to the progress of the international thermonuclear experimental reactor program and related research in China as well. The prospect of this strategy for China's nuclear energy development is given at the end.