That's my assessment too after following the news for a few months now.
A lot of stuff that have been revealed or could have been in those documents are probably stuffs that Chinese government should make public or be more transparent about in the first place.
Nuclear launch procedure? Well, the US or other nuclear powers probably wouldn't find it too surprising if they know China's nuclear launch procedure. In fact, I would say to increase strategic stability, nuclear powers should at least disclose their respective procedures and processes to each other at high level without going into too much details. And details can be changed or modified if they're leaked.
The map and layout of Zhongnanhai compound where Chinese leadership reside. I don't know why this should be a state secret. We all know where the US President lives, as well as many foreign leaders. In the '80, the Zhongnanhai compound were selectively open to the public, just like White House is. I had taken a tour of the compound back then and visited some of the places and rooms where former Chinese leaders used to live. I think they should open the place again to the public. So now the CIA knows where Xi Jinping lives within Zhongnanhai, big deal.
And what about the high-level power struggle and relationships among the Chinese leaders? Is it going to be damaging to the PRC if these were disclosed in the documents? In a normal society, a lot of these information are easy to get or at least pretty transparent. Once in a while, you have some high-level retired government officials writing memoirs of their own disclosing the inner workings or scandals within the government. Chinese politics is a lot more opaque; Chinese public only get to know the internal politics after a long time or when leaders pass away. It's good if someone can disclose some dirty laundries of the Chinese Communist Party high-ranking officials. It's actually good for China.
China's financial strategy? At the strategy level, China's financial and RMB policies are pretty obvious. Maybe some Chinese foreign investment or exchange reserves information were exposed. Is it such a big damage?
I just don't see much of really valuable intelligence in this case are compromised. Truth is, a lot of information that are considered "secret" by CCP and Chinese government should really be made public to begin with in a normal society.
I also doubt, although without concrete evidence, that Ling Jihua were carefully in selecting what kind of documents he wanted Ling Wancheng to take out in order to bargain for his safety and punishment. It would be more political and personnel in nature than national security in nature, which will be damaging to certain power-to-be in China, but not necessarily to be considered as treason to the nation, because in that case, no one say save Ling Jihua. Besides, as critical as Ling's position is, he doesn't have easy access to detailed national security information.
All in all, I think the media is trying to make a mountain out of molehills. Some embarrassing information leaked? Definitely. A huge compromise in national security? Highly doubt it.
