They are using coal for the things they cannot yet replace with renewables for the same reason the US is using natural gas: it is the most abundant, secure, and economical non-renewable source they have.

The US is using natural gas because of politics, and even that is significantly better than coal. This also doesn't explain why China (at ~5%) hasn't managed the same percentage of nuclear as the US (~18%).

Or why they need that amount of coal when they have even more hydro than the US, which is much better at load-following than coal and should have been used to displace coal rather than nuclear.