Looking back at the coal-power policy direction during the early stages of the 13th Five-Year Plan, it was almost exclusively characterized by restrictive policies: strictly controlling new capacity additions, phasing out outdated capacity, setting deadlines for upgrading and transforming existing plants, reducing emissions, lowering coal consumption, and cutting electricity prices; promoting coal capacity reduction, liberalizing power generation plans, and vigorously pushing for market-based transactions. In short, there were far more negative factors than positive ones, leaving coal power facing both “difficulties in survival” and “difficulties in development.” By the fourth quarter of 2019, however, the coal-power policy direction began to show a subtle shift—from “comprehensive tightening” to a “mix of tightening and easing.”