I don't know how people believed so blindly in a poorly translated article or whatnot. Perhaps it was a directed attempt by the media to make it seem this way, in order to make things seem more positive in the bear market for whatever reason.
But anyways, even though this obviously isn't true and the ban was never lifted, there are interesting things that came out of this.
“Although Bitcoin may not be legal currency, that does not prevent it from being protected by law as a property," said SCIA in the released case analysis. "The Party contends that Bitcoin has characteristics of a property (SOV) that can be controlled by the owner; it has economic value and can bring economic benefits to the owner. This does not break any laws. This arbitrator agrees," the decision noted.
I mean, this is actually quite reasonable. They are obviously going to be missing out on the crypto businesses that could have brought in immense investments in the future and in the present due to the vast amount of crypto players in the Chinese market, but obviously they decided to step another direction.
But for now, at least, they are respecting individuals rights to hold, trade and transact with bitcoin. Hopefully it stays this way with this court ruling, as mentioned, it's not positive to the point that the bans on exchanges etc. are lifted, but even if they do change their stance one day to restrict bitcoin ownership, it will be impossible to enforce.