The inertial confinement fusion (ICF) program toward ignition in China has made great progress since 1993. After research work on SG series with laser energy of tens kJ, SG-III laser facility with energy output of hundreds kJ is being used to study target physics prior to ignition. A new hybrid drive (HD) approach combined indirect drive (ID) and direct drive (DD) provides the HD pressure far greater than the radiation ablation pressure to drive implosion dynamics and hotspot ignition occurring in nonstagnation time when severe hotspot deformation and hydrodynamic instabilities have not fully developed. Experiments on SG-III have verified the boost effect of the HD pressure and showed lower fractions of laser backscattering and hot-electron energy. The development of the ICF program has advanced the study of high energy density physics. An energy band theory for warm dense matter has been proposed and a new code has been developed to study equation of state and transport coefficients for ICF implosion matter and the interion properties of planets.