As the world's largest CO2 emitter, China's CO2 emissions have become one of the most popular issues concerned by domestic and foreign researchers. Therefore, analysis of the current status of China's carbon emissions is very important. After drawing a chart of China's carbon flow in 2012, based on the IPCC carbon emission inventory method and China's energy balance table, this paper gives a detailed description of the current status of China's carbon flow and compares the changing characteristics of China's carbon flow between 2008 and 2012. The results show that 75.12% of total CO2 emissions flow mainly into several sectors, such as ferrous sectors, and the chemical industry in the terminal sub-sectors. Although China's thermoelectric efficiency increased dramatically during past four years, emissions from the heat and power production sector are still increasing due to China's large demand for heat and power. In the ferrous metal and chemical industry sectors, CO2 emissions are mainly energy-related, while in the non-metallic mineral sector, CO2 emissions are mainly from process CO2 emissions. In different terminal sub-sectors, the main carriers of CO2 flow are different, thus, related CO2 reduction policies should also be targeted. In addition, some valuable suggestions are given in this paper. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.