China cut fossil fuel use 2% in H1 2025 (compared to H1 2024). It cut coal use 2% in H1 2025 (compared to H1 2024) [1]. The majority of new energy production is wind and solar, not nuclear, and certainly not coal.

[1] Both numbers on page 14: https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2025/09/China-Energy-Tr...

China’s building tons of solar and wind, too. If we’re interested in keeping up with them, we could start by not cancelling already planned solar projects (https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/feds-appear-to-canc...).

Besides, if the cost of keeping up with China is breathing deadly coal smoke, I’m not sure the decision is as obvious as you make it seem.

As of past 1.5 years, the use of fossil fuels for electricity generation in China seems to have reached a plateau. They are building new coal plants, more new plants than they are retiring old plants. But even with new coal plants, they have not been burning more coal.

https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/global-electricity-...

https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-why-china-is-still-bu...

They are barely building any nuclear plants, so far zero finished in 2025.

In terms of coal its usage has started to decrease in actual terms since the start of 2025. All demand growth and more is solved by new built renewables and storage.