The combustion of coal and biofuels in Chinese households is a large source of black carbon (BC), representing about 10--15% of total global emissions during the past two decades, depending on the year. How the Chinese household sector develops during the next 50 years will have an important bearing on future aerosol concentrations, because the range of possible outcomes (about 550 Gg yr-1) is greater than total BC emissions in either the United States or Europe (each about 400--500 Gg yr-1). In some Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scenarios biofuels persist in rural China for at least the next 50 years, whereas in other scenarios a transition to cleaner fuels and technologies effectively mitigates BC emissions. This paper discusses measures and policies that would help this transition and also raises the possibility of including BC emission reductions as a post-Kyoto option for China and other developing countries.