It is correct that HL holds the licensing agreement and can be negotiated with a BP outside a sale agreement but a sale can also be contingent on an agreement. BP might not want the deal without the whole enchilada or might want to negotiate a lower buyout price because of it. They might also be happy with the agreement as we know China is easier to deal with when you have a Chinese partner. Lots of options that we have no idea on what they would settle on in the end. 

Actually, the Chinese population today is estimated at a little over 1.4 million persons. It is immaterial whether this includes the territories or not as the three of them only total about 31 million which is only a rounding number.