Commentary How seriously does the arrival of “peak coal” in China impact its strategic viability? China’s coal reserves, the essence of its energy security, are now in decline. More than half of China’s energy is delivered by coal. Domestic oil production had already peaked in 2013. In 2020, China produced 3.9 million barrels a day of domestic oil, but consumes 14.2 million barrels. This arrival in 2021 of “peak coal” in China was forecast in 2013 by Australian scientist David Archibald, who noted in The Wentworth Report on Nov. 26: “Cheap coal has been the Chicom’s [Chinese communist] source of strength, enabling them to threaten most of their neighbors and bully others as far away as Lithuania. But peak coal has arrived on schedule for the Chicoms and they are now staring into the abyss of rapidly declining coal production.” “Coal consumption at 4,000-million tonnes per annum is the energy equivalent of 50-million barrels of …