Beta... I've got a strong feeling that it's for all the above really!!
There is a lot of Chinese investment into the UK, if you look at Manchester (Graphene etc...), Birmingham (JLR, Resorts World) and Scotland - it makes sense that this is possibly the start of increased links to the UK from China. I reckon there would be a massive business case for increased links.
I predict Manchester will get new routes to other cities in China too, but also Birmingham and Edinburgh won't be too far behind. As far as I'm aware, a decent bit of ground work has been done in BHX already.
Interesting times ahead for all UK airports.