Abstract <p>One of the global tasks faced by the world community is the transition to sustainable energy<i>.</i> One of the largest economies in the world with a developed power engineering industry, China has also embarked on the path of developing green power generation that meets the principles of sustainable development. At the same time, China continues to actively develop traditional power generation systems. The article studies the political and economic drivers that determine China’s current energy policy in the domain of green energy development and explains the seeming inconsistency of China’s energy policy. It is concluded that the geopolitical goals and economic objectives faced by the Government of China will continue to affect the formation of its energy policy and maintain the current trend for the parallel development of conventional and green energy<i>.</i></p>