OK, specifically for the semantics game, the fuel freeze point for the Chinese fuel was colder than required for specification, the water content was lower than the permissible maximum. In that way it exceeded spec. There's no problem talking about something exceeding spec. Every engineering organisation I've worked in (and thats quite a few) has had no issue with describing something as exceeding spec. Nonetheless talk about exceeding spec is a pointless word game and all this could all have been gleaned from earlier posts.
The behaviour exhibited by water molecules in very cold fuel is not as expected and investigations are ongoing to establish what mechanisms and behaviours are at work. The Trent 800 is the only engine being investigated initially and it would appear that specific interactions could exist between the fuel/water mixture and elements of the Trent fuel feed system that could lead to unexpected ice accretion. Boeing intend to test the entire 777 fuel system to see if the fault could occur elsewhere in the system. Given that the unexpected fuel/water mix behaviour will be common across all aircraft operating in similar environmental conditions it's quite plausible other aircraft types could be affected.