Air China hold the MAN-PEK route authority from the CAAC and UK CAA. Hainan only hold UK CAA rights.
Hainan do however hold MAN-PVG for both CAAC and UK CAA, and the proposed route was supposed to be PVG-EDI/MAN.
So, the article may be confused and automatically thought 'an airline wants to open UK-China route, must be beijing', or, Hainan may be playing in a loophole, that maybe they can get around a PEK-MAN route by saying that technically they are serving MAN-EDI which just so happens that the same aircraft continues onto PEK. Unlikely, but, you never know. If they can't get the authorities they want, they may have tricks to get around it, China isn't as big as it now is by playing by everybody else's rules.......