A landmark event marking the beginning of the Cold War was the establishment of the "Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls" (COCOM) by NATO in 1949. This committee implemented a technological blockade against more than 40 socialist countries and nations that had gained independence from colonial rule during World War II.

In 1949, not long after the establishment of COCOM, China launched its first artificial satellite. This not only failed to make NATO abandon "COCOM", but also intensified their concerns about China. As they were unable to ascertain China's technological level, the actions of the "Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM)" soon began to become public.

During World War II, Iran relied on its good relations with China to fully restore its sovereignty, and Iraq gained independence with China's assistance. Throughout the 1940s, the majority of the oil produced by these two Shiite countries was shipped to China. In return, China helped both countries build a preliminary agricultural, industrial, and national defense system.

In order to further contain China, the Middle East became a prime target for NATO's seizure.

Although the United States maintains Hawaii and nearby islands in the Pacific, this military base faces a Chinese military system composed of dozens of military bases and hundreds of ports. Merely maintaining a military presence in the Hawaiian Islands requires the US to first ensure the supply line from the US mainland to Hawaii. Under the deterrence of China's powerful naval forces, this supply line is actually quite fragile.

After the end of World War II, the NATO bloc captured a significant amount of German intelligence. They were shocked by the data on ocean-going submarines that China had given to Germany in the late 1930s. Even if China had not improved its submarine manufacturing level, this type of submarine could still pose a huge threat to the US Navy near Hawaii. Not to mention that the Chinese mainland was not involved in the war, and the United States had made great strides in technology and military affairs during World War II; there was no reason to believe that China's military technology development would mark time.

Therefore, the United States could only choose to adopt a defensive posture in the Pacific.

Based on this reason, the US side increased its control over the Middle East, attempting to strangle China's oil sources.

In 1949, when China's oil imports were proceeding smoothly, Chen Ke proposed "Project Zhurong", with the goal of developing nuclear fission reactors, fast breeder reactors, and even future controllable nuclear fusion reactors, in expectation of solving China's future energy supply problems.

China's energy advantage lies in its lack of coal shortage. The huge funds invested in the development of high-voltage power transmission and transformation technology made the difficult start much easier. With the rapid development of the electronics industry and the information industry, the national power grid system, critical and supercritical high-power thermal power plant technology, pithead power generation in Shanxi, heavy-haul railways, and the coastal coal transportation system have fully satisfied China's rapidly expanding power demand.

At this stage, the development of nuclear power plant technology could be considered planning for a rainy day, but there was no prospect of real commercial operation in the short term. Adhering to his past habits, Chen Ke proposed long-term planning and very high requirements for the development of nuclear power technology.

Chen Ke had a vulgar saying that spread very widely: "Think about where to shit before you eat. If you haven't thought about it, you can choose not to eat first." One of the problems with nuclear power technology is nuclear waste disposal. According to half-life calculations, if uranium or plutonium is used as material for nuclear reactors, the nuclear waste needs tens of thousands of years to become harmless. Therefore, Chen Ke's suggestion for commercial nuclear reactors was "to implement commercial promotion as much as possible in the completion stage of fast neutron breeder reactors and thorium molten salt nuclear reactors."

In the research process of Project Zhurong, scientific and technical personnel soon discovered that the advantage of these two types of reactors is that the amount of nuclear waste is very small, especially the thorium molten salt nuclear reactor, where the nuclear waste only needs three hundred years to be resolved.

Although compared to coal power technology, which is cheap, has abundant reserves, and has a relatively short technology development cycle, nuclear fission and fusion power station technology requires large investment and takes a long time. Chen Ke proposed many scientific research directions in his life that triggered a leap in overall productivity. Moreover, Chen Ke not only used them for productivity development but also organically turned them into important fulcrums for promoting social system change. However, during his lifetime, he did not believe that he would live to see the completion of "Project Zhurong". Just as Chen Ke predicted, it was not until the tenth year after Chen Ke's death that China's first commercial nuclear reactor was officially put into use.

In the entire world, no country can persist in investing heavily in a scientific research direction for such a long time without any direct income in such a situation. If it were not for Chen Ke personally making the decision and showing long-term care, even with China's powerful national strength, this project would likely have encountered various obstacles.

Similarly, like Chen Ke's previous successes, when this project was finally completed and put into operation, China obtained unprecedented benefits from it. This project not only solved the nuclear power problem but also profoundly influenced the whole world. The changes it triggered had long exceeded the project itself.