Absolute horse manure. China knew about the virus as early as November last year. They tried to cover it up at the end of the year and into January by arresting doctors and independent journalists. It is not the first time neither, SARS came from China too, if it wasn't for HK alerting the world then that would have had the potential to be as bad as COVID.
As for the economy, I do hope you realise that every economic figure that comes out of China is fabricated. Just like with cases/deaths from the virus, after replacing the Mayor of Wuhan in April, the city and China stopped recording deaths and cases have been a 'handful' each day. When are people going to realise China is a totalitarian state that rewrites history, spreads its propaganda and coerces the world. Judging by some of the comments on this post and those previous, it seems to have worked.
I eventually got out of that Orwellian nightmare state back in July, however my friends who are still out there have described the situation as extremely bleak. There are huge food shortages. Local businesses have gone under. The export industry which takes up a considerable proportion of their economy has been devastated. No doubt they made billions from hoarding all the PPE back in January then reselling most of it back to the rest of the world, yet this is peanuts compared to the hit on their economy on the whole.
Asian countries in the norm have performed better in the west due to a number of reasons. From a cultural aspect, people adhere to government rules. Mask wearing is a fairly common practice, whether it be pollution or minor colds, people wear masks to prevent infecting others. But getting back to China, people really do have short memories. Local officials dragged people out of their homes. Sealed off entire community complexes. Any mention of the virus and China has been censored all over the internet. We can point the finger at our leaders, but to imply that China has came out of this smelling of roses is frankly fatuous.
