From what I have read China is putting a stop to bitcoin mining because of the high carbon emissions that come from most of the bitcoin mines and its inland electricity production that use coal to produce it.
Simply put they have banned high pollution ways of generating electricity, could we still say bitcoin mining is banned?
Spot on about the coal-burning power plants being the root issue. The eye-catching title of using "Bitcoin farms shut down" to highlight what they are doing just so happens to fit perfectly with China launching their own digital currency. They do not want competition and so now there is a total ban on crypto mining regardless of where the farms get their power from.
What has made little news is that along with shutting down cryptocoin farms in areas fed mainly by coal plants, China also shuttered several aluminum foundries located in those same regions for the same reason -- they require massive amounts of power and getting it from coal is a bad idea.