Is it always a zero-sum game?

The Chinese media is now portraying the Google vs. China issue as a political plot by the White House!

While this is technically possible it can't be proven- the paper makes a reference to a meeting between Google and State Department officials prior to Google's anti-censorship/Chinese hacking announcement. Of course the paper has no idea what was actually communicated in this meeting (Google was probably giving the government a courtesy heads up imho) so accusing the White House of controlling Google is about as well founded as the "Iraq is responsible for 9/11 meme."

Of course the irony here is that a government controlled Chinese newspaper is accusing Google of being controlled by the American government. This sort of accusation will probably stick with many Chinese readers because of the paradigm China works under- the Communist Party (and therefore Chinese government) CAN stick its fingers into any company and make purely political decisions so why can't the American government?

Plenty of people in China probably already believed that the US government was behind the Google decision- that the Party decided to put it in print is revealing of how seriously they take the Google affair. The Chinese government is undoubtedly aware that stoking nationalism can have unintended results and they usually only do so for threats to Chinese sovereignty.

Of course the implied next move is that the White House can either confirm or deny these allegations. Denying them puts some distance between the White House and Google's free speech rhetoric while confirming that the White House can order Google around (which is incredibly stupid) would play into Chinese nationalist paranoia in which everyone is trying to keep China down. Of course the other option is to ignore the allegations- which is probably the best move for this incredibly China friendly administration.