I must have missed or ignored this thread when it was made, but it's interesting to look back and wonder if people like OP here have learned the answer to such a sort of silly question. 

People think whales control markets much more than they do.  The market cap of something would have to be relatively small in order for that to be true, and there are way too many people involved with bitcoin right now for that to happen--unless someone like Warren Buffett decided he wanted in and started buying in really big amounts.  Even then, he'd probably just buy it off-exchange where the purchase wouldn't affect the price.  There's an active thread in Economics right now talking about people doing just that.

Obviously nobody did or could keep the Chinese from getting cheap prices on bitcoin, and I'm pretty sure that was nobody's goal anyway.

Yep.  It's happened in every crazy-ass bull market throughout time.  Analysts (or whoever) make outrageous predictions about price in order to make a name or draw attention to themselves.