Not really true. They make a fair bit of money by leasing aircraft and supplying parts to the mainland HNA group airlines to get around the CAAC central ordering.
That has not been going well over the past few months,
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN1DZ33G
Over a dozen FOs have left HKA for KA in the past 6 months.
Looks like there is a mix of FOs switching between HKA and KA