In 2016, China consumed 3.9 billion tonnes of coal, making China (by far) the largest coal consumer in the world. Number 2 was India (at 850 million tonnes). China burns around 50% of the coal in the world. As late as 1987, China burned less than 1 billion tonnes of coal. The idea that China is some sort of renewable energy leader is just PR.



Here is a useful statistic, in 2016, renewables provided 2.8% of China's energy (using a liberal definition of renewables) versus coal at 63%.