Busy B and Midnight Oil
CX never had the "rights" to Beijing and Shanghai. When CX flew those routes, they were on an ad hoc Charter agreement, which had to be renewed on a monthly basis. It was only after KA started to fly those routes that KA was granted proper RPT full rights. In return, KA also gave up some routes to CX. It was not long thereafter that the frequencies on those routes were increased. KA provided an extremely good service, which was appreciated by the powers that be in the mainland.
Remember, in those days, CX was a minority shareholder in KA; most of the shares were held by Hong Kong and mainland Chinese interests. CX was, and is still, seen by the Chinese as Swire (UK) plc.