Manchester has one of the largest Chinese populations in Europe, so it's surprising that Hong Kong Airlines chose LGW to operate from & only last week, Air China started a 4 x week Beijing - LGW service.
Cathay seem fixated to feed their flights via LHR.
For me, a direct Chinese flight would make most sense, but from who I don't know.
Maybe it's SIAs low cost longhaul carrier Scoot to replace the 777 (?) on the SIN service.
It's also high time Air Canada got back in to provide Star Alliance service to Canada rather than leaving it all to Air Transit. There must be some money about, because nearly all Air Transat premium seats are sold out to Vancouver / Toronto all summer.