Really neat if they managed to do this. But I'm a bit skeptical.

Although EAST has made a shit ton of leaps and bounds over the last few months I really doubt that it was able to stay on for a minute. A minute is magnitudes larger than previous tests and along side China's wonderful track record with research publishing, something tells me there's either an exaggeration here or something is up. Hell, I couldn't find another source (off of a quick google search) other than this site about this event.

Even if EAST did stay on for a minute we're still way into net loss territory here. EAST uses electromagnets to basically "vaporize" a solid fuel core into plasma, and uses magnetism to increase the "pressure" of the system until fusion occurs. Those magnets suck a LOT energy and helium. Sustaining a confined plasma reaction isn't really a problem if what we know about physics is true, it's just incredibly inefficient. Given an infinite amount of resources like coolant and electricity we could probably sustain a reaction for hours.

On the plus side: running these tests has no potential for massive destruction. Fusion reactions just kind of fizzle out of existence if they fail kind of like a candle being snuffed out. So at least we can experiment with this stuff safely.

Note: I'm not a fusion energy engineer. Just someone who likes seeing news about this stuff.