As the head of the CNNC, he was instrumental in expanding China's nuclear industry, including nuclear weapons. He was also the prime facilitator of supplying nuclear plants to Pakistan including the Chashma Nuclear Power Project (Chasnupp) Phase I and II.

Chasnupp 1 was the first Chinese-built nuclear generating unit on foreign soil. China has also sold Algeria a heavy water reactor for research.

CNNC is the successor to the ministry of nuclear industry, which built China's first atom bomb, hydrogen bomb and nuclear submarine. It functioned as a government bureau for the national nuclear industry and reported directly to the Chinese State Council.

It oversaw China's nuclear-related corporations, manufacturers, institutions, research institutes, and plants, including those related to nuclear weapons. It was responsible for the design and operation of nuclear power plants; nuclear fuel production and supply, including the processing of natural uranium, uranium conversion and enrichment, fuel assembly fabrication, spent fuel reprocessing, and nuclear waste disposal.

CNNC, which is an industrial conglomerate, comprising over 200 enterprises and institutions with advanced technology and equipment and a total of 280 000 employees, is also responsible for mining of uranium into nuclear fuel, nuclear manufacturing for both military and civilian use, nuclear waste treatment and storage, and nuclear safety.

It also exports nuclear power plants and heavy water to countries like Pakistan and Algeria. Its effort to build reactors in Pakistan and the Middle East, have raised concerns in the West about nuclear proliferation.