I don't know how serious the legal issues in China when it comes to cryptocurrencies as I still see some Chinese exchanges like HUObi and OKex still dominating their country as well as the overall traded volume, this shows that their citizens can actively trade cryptocurrencies without the government interrupting their activities.
Huobi and OKEx aren't Chinese exchanges anymore.
In some parts of China you can still access both exchanges, and these exchanges still allow Chinese users to sign up, but it's legally not allowed to trade fiat to crypto. There is definitely something fishy going on. It's crazy to think that the rest of the exchanges have gotten a very harsh treatment, and these two exchanges are loosely floating around without consequences. They probably have government officials on board or they have ties to them granting them this freedom.
They constantly pop up on top of the trading volume list regardless of how badly wounded they initially were. This isn't normal.
Also they do have a manufacturer of mining equipment Bitmain who is also legally operating their business in China as well as they do have a few miners located in it. From what I see is that the news in China is being recycled to us and they make it look worse compared to the real situation misleading us all.
Mining itself and the process of manufacturing equipment is (has always been) completely legal in China. But yes, the mainstream media is always trying to sell you rubbish in an attempt to generate clicks. It's up to the people to seperate rubbish from that was is true, and the only way to do that is to dig into everything yourself.