As the world’s largest consumer of total primary energy and energy from coal, and the largest emitter of carbon dioxide (CO₂), China is now taking an active role in controlling CO₂ emissions. Given current coal use in China, and the urgent need to cut emissions, ‘clean coal’ technologies are regarded as a promising solution for China to meet its carbon reduction targets while still obtaining a considerable share of energy from coal. Using an economy-wide model, this paper evaluates the impact of two existing advanced coal technologies—coal upgrading and ultra-supercritical (USC) coal power generation—on economic, energy and emissions outcomes when a carbon price is used to meet China’s CO₂ intensity target out to 2035. Additional deployment of USC coal power generation lowers the carbon price required to meet the CO₂ intensity target by more than 40% in the near term and by 25% in the longer term. It also increases total coal power generation and coal use. Increasing the share of coal that is upgraded leads to only a small decrease in the carbon price. As China’s CO₂ intensity is set exogenously, additional deployment of the two technologies has a small impact on total CO₂ emissions.