They have huge amounts, but want slightly more. They're the biggest coal producer, producing half the world's coal, and then consuming it too, along with importing an extra 10% which is coking coal for steel making. They have lots of lignite and bituminous coal, which is fine for heat and electricity, and would be fine for turning into gas and liquid hydrocarbon fuel if that was useful.
Am I missing something? This does not seem consistent with what I have seen going out of the harbors. Exports of both thermal and metallurgical coal from the United States to China have increased [0][1].
Donbas - the part of Ukraine that is presently occupied by Russia - is called that because it's an abbreviation of "DONetsk coal BASin", one of the largest in the world.
Coincidentally, there has been a downturn in coal production there in the past two decades (and the associated closure of mines and processing infrastructure and unemployment) because of reduced demand. But if China were suddenly in dire need of coal, it wouldn't be hard for Russia to scale things up again there.
