.. especially since I believe that the laws in China are strictly implemented.
Which is what I have been thinking since the day this thread was first posted. China is well known for its laws and habit of controlling everything that its citizens do. Hence if mining is illegal people would not dare to run it underground. However I am not aware of insider details, I would assume that the people there would be terrified of resuming mining even after a ban is running and think twice before re-starting if the ban if lifted.
Such a news article will make no sense until the ban is actually lifted.
You speak without knowledge. Have you ever seen how the business works?
There are many miners that can run underground even without public knowledge. You can easily export the machine to North Europe and run a farm, because hashpower is global. The bans are cosmetic.
In mining, the big problem is not to hide the equipment, although this is also important. It is possible to hide mining equipment, but it is difficult to hide the constant consumption of electricity. In Russia, power engineers have become very effective in catching illegal miners due to high electricity consumption.These are also cosmetic measures, but miners are afraid.