I suppose it does come across (with the benefit of 20:20 hindsight) like a piece of misguided spin by the BHX team. I don't think anyone was taken in by the 'scheduled' tag when those flights were clearly just a rehash of the previous years' charters.
This in itself could have been enough to have upset/annoyed the Chinese - those of us who have done any work there will know just how easy it is to 'do/say the wrong thing'.
Probably a blip, as you say I have no doubt both BHX and EDI will get China flights in the fullness of time. As ever though Manchester is the pathfinder for non London long-haul. If it works at MAN then that's got to be good news for other regionals.