Wow. My only weapon idea was a particle canon (like the Spartan laser from Halo, or smaller versions like the gauss rifle.) I was going to say that the Chinese had discovered a way to amplitude and vector match particle energy (like a lasing material does with light it releases), and used it to make particle guns, though only a few were ever used in US territories. The US (specifically General Atomic) discovered a way to convert the heat energy in plasma into electricity with very high efficiency, and they used it to build the fusion reactors we are going to repair.
Those two ideas together could be used to make a smaller, more efficient but far less powerful fusion reactor. (say the size of a Mr. Handy, 5 mw output)
The Chinese idea would be used by Zero to make particle resonance fields, instead of your standard photonic resonance forcefields.