It seems China wants to use the hardware for themselves as they can use it to mine bitcoin in their country, giving them more rewards.
Yeah indeed, and you have figured their evil plan!!
There are thousands of miners the CCP could have grabbed and seized with a court order back in April. but no, their plan is far more elaborate and more devilish, they are going to buy the miners by going door to door and asking people if they have a miner for sale.
China is cutting power in key economic sectors, forcing blackouts and driving industry number to corona levels activity and you think they care about bitcoin mining.
Their government will ask them to sell their equipment cheaply or get to jail if they do not follow what they want. That is one sample of their trick that they can use for all people mining from their homes or factory. After they get almost all of the hardware, they will start mining, collect the money, and prepare for the next plan. But unfortunately, we do not know what the next of their plan so we can only guess.