media - maturing state-media cause confusion about US policy

The upheaval surrounding an article in the China Daily, one day before the US elections, where state-councillor Qian Qichen describes US president Bush as an arrogant man who tries to rule the world is a nice case study how much can go wrong in reading the transforming Chinese media.
Today the official spokesman denied the article reflected the official government position on the US. The quotes has been used earlier last month in a weekly of the Communist Party School. Now both the upset US-officials and their Chinese counterparts both have to learn how to deal with media that do their work. Qian Qichen obvious feels that Bush is an arrogant man who tries to rule the world, and that is an opinion worth to be noted. Journalists write that up and when anybody should have a problem, it should be mr. Qian. Or not?