The Chinese Government may have some other motive as I don't think they would want the influence of the Chinese miners to diminish in the bitcoin playground. This may have been an attempt to tighten their grip on miners who don't agree with their policy but surely they won't hurt the interests of the chinese mining industry. They could have the desire to influence the cryptocurrency world as Chinese Government loves control and maintaining its influence.
RE: China sneezes and the rest of the crypto markets catch a cold, but the biggest move likely came because CoinMarketCap removed South Korean exchanges