If you read the South China Morning Post's coverage of the recent visit by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and some younger Singaporean leaders' to China, we won't blame you if you came away confused.

(But then again, we suppose it's just like the Hong Kongers' own relationship with their Chinese counterparts -- confused.)

Between Sept. 19 and 21, the Hong Kong newspaper of record lavished praise on Sino-Singapore relations to the highest heavens.

Just look at these headlines:

Source: SCMP website.

And on the 21st, no less, seemingly on a whim — a bait-and-switch to pressure Singapore to give up its military links to Taiwan:

It flip-flopped again in this article on Sept. 23, which played up the significance of PM Lee's visit:

And then, three days later, the English-language paper would dismiss the "Sino-Singapore relations back on track" hyperbole — that they themselves created, mind you — and ask its readers to ignore the ceremonial pom for the Singapore leaders, while asserting that Singapore and China are still at odds.

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So, who and what to believe?

It's easy. Review the facts first, before making your own conclusions.

Fact 1: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong met four out of seven leaders in China’s highest decision-making body, including top leader Xi Jinping.

In the three-day trip (Sept. 19 to 21), PM Lee met four out of the seven top leaders from the Chinese Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), including President Xi, Premier Li Keqiang, Chairman of the National People’s Congress Zhang Dejiang and Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection Wang Qishan.

Basically, PM Lee met three of the top ranked Chinese leaders (Xi, Li and Zhang are ranked one, two, and three respectively).

He also made special arrangements to meet Wang, who while ranked sixth in the PSC, is perceived by the Financial Times to be the "China's second most powerful leader". How powerful is Wang? He just had a secret meeting with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Fact 2: The Chinese media were mainly positive and devoted much coverage to the visit

According to The Straits Times, the Chinese media were mainly positive about PM Lee's first official visit in four years to Beijing, although some, like the nationalistic Global Times, were more reserved.

ST also noted that PM Lee's meeting with President Xi was the top item of the main news bulletin of state broadcaster CCTV. In fact, PM Lee's visit took up a total of seven of the 30-minute bulletin.

Fact 3: South China Morning Post's ownership

Let's now look a little closer at SCMP.

The fact is, SCMP is an English-language paper owned by a Chinese company that is located in Hong Kong.

Jack Ma's Alibaba acquired SCMP in December 2015.

So how now? You decide.

Having laid out the facts, it is up to us to see the world for what it is and not mistake our hopes or fears for reality.

The truth, or political truth, to be more specific, can't always be determined in a marketplace of ideas in the same way that the marketplace determines the prices of goods and services.

For instance, it is easier for a Singaporean reader to access the SCMP online with many free-flowing commentaries on the visit compared to a lumbering Straits Times with a paywall and only one commentary (yes, just one on Saturday) to make sense of it.

Furthermore, it is not always to Hong Kong or Hong Kongers' benefit to play up the Sino-Singapore bilateral relationship.

And it is certainly not in Hong Kong's (or the SCMP's, for that matter -- see fact 3) interest to criticise their political masters in China.

So what is the best way to cover the Singapore leaders' China visit for a Hong Kong paper?

Use Singapore as a punching bag.

Top photo by Lintao Zhang/Pool/Getty Images

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