SCMP fundamentally is controlled by China.
The military is the most sensitive of all topics, and China will never permit a newspaper on its soil to publish detailed, accurate information about the PLA unless that information is already widely known to those in the field.
Imo it's pretty clear that Minnie Chan and the SCMP deliberately publish false, sensational reports on the PLA in order to mislead Western readers.
In other words, Minnie is such a good agent.