I have a feeling the whole banning thing is about Segwit/Segwitx2. The government may try to influence the outcome of upcoming events or use the banning threat to force the community to accept Segwitx2
I highly doubt that. The Segwit and Segwit2x issues may seem fundamentally important to us as bitcoiners, but I don't think the Chinese government cares. What they care about is capital outflows, shadow banking (and AML/KYC controls to combat it), and
maybe they want to organize trading and even mining activities under state control.
I'm not sure about the latter, because it means that they are likely really bullish on Bitcoin. Could that really be?! There is talk about a potential "nation-state mining arms race" if the Chinese government enters the game...