During the 1990's Cathay was clearly in charge in Hong Kong. In fact even many of the locals did not know who Dragonair were in those days. Now with Dragonair having a large chinese ownership and Hong Kong reverting to China the situation appears to be changing. I say 'appears' because clearly Dragonair feel they can play against the big boys now by taking Cathay to court over chinese routes.
Maybe it is time for a damper to be put on Dragonair before they get too big. I see no reason why Cathay should not fly in to China. They already provide many of the passengers for Dragonair by flying them in to Hong Kong to transit to chinese destinations. Dragonair also fly to many destinations outside of China in competition with Cathay so why not in China as well?
There are also many airlines which fly directly to Beijing and Shanghai bypassing Hong Kong. Why shouldn't Dragonair complain about them? Because it would not be reasonable. Nor is it reasonable for them to complain about Cathay flying in to China.