In 2007, China firmly established itself as the driver of the global methanol industry. The country became the world's largest methanol producer and consumer. The development of the methanol industry and methanol fuel in China is reviewed in this article. China is rich in coal but is short on oil and natural gas; unfortunately, transportation development will need more and more oil to provide the fuel. Methanol is becoming a dominant alternative fuel. China is showing the rest of the world how cleaner transportation fuels can be made from coal.