China, the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal, possesses extensive underground space in coal-bearing regions (CBRs). With the low-carbon transition of the national energy system, the utilization of underground coal-mine spaces for energy storage has attracted significant attention. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the types, engineering suitability, safety constraints, and future pathways of underground energy storage (UES) technologies in China’s coal mines based on 1044 related publications from Web of Science Core Collection and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). The results indicate that China’s CBRs overlap substantially with solar, wind, and geothermal resources, accounting for 82.2%, 88.3%, and 85.2% of the national resource distribution, respectively, demonstrating substantial potential for integrated renewable-energy development. On this basis, the principal UES technologies applicable to abandoned and producing coal mines are summarized, identifying key technological requirements and safety challenges under different geological conditions. In addition, functional backfill technologies are emerging as valuable tools for the full carbon cycle by enabling underground CO₂ sequestration, geothermal heat extraction, and strategic underground storage of energy carriers. However, large-scale deployment of UES in coal mines remains constrained by geological uncertainty in deep mining environments, cyclic loading effects, and coupled thermal-hydrological-mechanical disturbances. Long-term cavern stability, sealing integrity, and leakage risks require further validation. Future progress will hinge on intelligent material design, digital-twin monitoring, multi-field coupled stability assessment, and multi-energy complementary systems, which may provide a potential pathway for the low-carbon transformation of China’s CBRs.