Coal’s strategic role in China is that of a deliberate, sovereign anchor—abundant domestic “ballast stone” (定海神针) that delivers energy independence, grid reliability, industrial competitiveness, and military resilience while enabling the world’s fastest renewables buildout.

Beijing does not treat coal as a relic to phase out on a fixed timeline; it optimizes it as flexible infrastructure in a hybrid “all-of-the-above” system.

This realist approach prioritizes national power and self-sufficiency over rapid absolute emissions cuts, as codified in the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030, finalized March 2026).

China imports ~70–73% of its oil (much via chokepoints like the Strait of Malacca or Hormuz) and significant LNG. Coal—100% domestic, rail-linked from mega-basins in Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Xinjiang—cannot be blockaded.

China operates ~1,243–1,271 GW of coal power—over half the world’s total—with a young fleet (average age ~12–14 years).

Coal powers steel, cement, polysilicon (for solar/EV exports), and chemicals at low, stable costs—underpinning manufacturing dominance and export leverage. Coal-to-chemicals already consumes 8–10%+ of output and is expanding rapidly (e.g., dozens of coal-to-olefins projects).

This keeps energy-intensive industries competitive while “green” supply chains (often coal-powered upstream) flood global markets.

CTL (primarily indirect Fischer-Tropsch) converts coal into synthetic diesel, jet fuel, and naphtha—clean-burning, fungible products immune to sea-lane disruption.

It addresses ~70–73% oil import dependence and supports the PLA Navy (world’s largest by hulls), aviation, and logistics in conflict scenarios.

Expansions continue (e.g., major facilities in Hami, Ningxia, Ordos); the sector consumes hundreds of millions of tonnes of coal annually and is poised for further growth.

Beijing accepts higher well-to-wheel CO₂ (~1.5–2x conventional oil) because the strategic payoff—autonomy under sanctions or blockade—outweighs economics. Historical precedents (wartime Germany, apartheid South Africa) inform this quiet buildup.

Empirically, the strategy works in power-projection terms: manufacturing booms, living standards rise, grid stability holds despite massive clean additions, and geopolitical resilience is enhanced.

Coal is not “dying”—it is being repurposed as sovereign optionality in great-power competition.

Western de-coal timelines sometimes create fragility; China’s approach demonstrates engineering realism: abundance and control first, decarbonization intensity second.

This is the “Excalibur” framing—coal as the tool that legitimizes and sustains national power.

“Beijing’s Excalibur: Coal as China’s Weapon of Sovereign Power” is a recent opinion piece by Dr. Joseph Fournier, published on his Substack.

The article portrays coal not as a relic of the past, but as a deliberate strategic asset—China’s equivalent of King Arthur’s Excalibur or the Chinese mythological “定海神针” (Dinghai Shenzen, the “sea-calming needle” or ballast stone of the Monkey King).

Fournier argues that while Western nations aggressively phase out coal under climate policies, Beijing is scaling it up by roughly 25% in key sectors, embedding it deeply into its industrial base, power grid, steelmaking, chemicals, and military resilience.

This creates sovereign independence from vulnerable foreign energy imports (oil/gas via chokepoints like the Malacca Strait) and gives China leverage in global energy dynamics.

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Beijing’s Excalibur: Coal as China’s Weapon of Sovereign Power

At the exact moment Western economies rush to eliminate coal, China is deliberately scaling output by ~25%, embedding it deeper into power, steel, chemicals, and national resilience.

By Joseph Fournier, Ph.D.

The People’s Republic of China is building a blue-water navy at a pace the world has not witnessed since the United States mobilized its shipyards during the Second World War. Dr. Josepf Fournier`s Substack has the story.

The scale is not a matter of speculation; it is a matter of public record. In March 2025, the Center for Strategic and International Studies published a landmark report revealing that the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) — a single state-owned enterprise — produced 14 million gross tonnes of vessels in 2024.

That figure is more than the entire U.S. shipbuilding industry has produced in the eight decades since the end of the war, combined [21].

The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is already the world’s largest navy by ship count, with over 370 ships and submarines in active service, and is projected to field a fleet of 425 vessels by 2030 — against the U.S. Navy’s roughly 300 [21].

These numbers command attention, and they should. But fixating on warship hulls alone is a strategic error. The real foundation of China’s military posture is not steel on the water — it is the resource that makes the steel, powers the shipyards, and fuels the entire industrial edifice that converts raw materials into sovereign power. That resource is coal.

Chinese policymakers do not speak of coal in the language of energy transition or environmental compromise.

They call it 定海神针 (dìng hǎi shén zhēn) — a term that translates literally as “the divine needle that calms the sea.” The reference is not obscure.

It is drawn from one of the most celebrated texts in Chinese literature: the 16th-century novel Journey to the West (西游记), in which the mythical hero Sun Wukong — the Monkey King — wields a magical iron pillar that commands the ocean itself.

The 定海神针 is not a metaphor for stability. It is a weapon of sovereign power — an instrument that confers mastery over the elements and bends the natural world to the will of the one who holds it.

The parallel to Excalibur in Western mythology is deliberate: just as Arthur’s sword conferred sovereign legitimacy and martial supremacy upon the king who drew it from the stone, the ballast stone confers upon the PRC the sovereign capacity to anchor its industrial and military power independently of foreign supply chains.

When Beijing calls coal the 定海神针, it is declaring coal a weapon of state — one that stabilizes the entire edifice of national power [6,12].

Read the full story here.