Abstract: Wastewater treatment and water reclamation have been considered as one of key factors influencing sustainable development of coal chemical industry.Based on the ever-increasing requirement for the standard and recycling of coal chemical wastewater treatment in China, the authors review the policy change process of coal chemical wastewater discharge in China, as well as the development of coal chemical industry, water resources utilization and wastewater treatment technology. The number of research papers on coal chemical wastewater treatment in recent years, especially in China are analyzed statistically. Based on global survey on number and quality of research articles and the scale and faculties applied for wastewater treatment and water reclamation, China become the leader of coal chemical industry wastewater treatment techniques and related application field. In the future, attention should be paid not only to the development of specific coal chemical wastewater treatment technology, but also to the optimization and monitoring of the treatment system.