Why is everyone surprised that China lied? Is anyone surprised when a rattlesnake strikes? - It's what they do.
China certainly did try to contain the Corona Virus and help its' people; they locked down the population in a way that Americans would not tolerate and they treated all that they could. Unfortunately, in a desire to manufacture goods as cheaply as possible (think of all the stuff Walmart and others sell and we buy), the manufacture of medical protective equipment and ventilators has largely shifted to China. And, in the time of their emergency, China diverted these goods to help fill their needs. No surprise there!
China is a very secretive and insular society and they are paranoid in their protection of the government and its' image - no bad news. So they certainly concealed the facts and the health implications from the outside world.
But, US and world-wide health officials knew in December that the Corona Virus existed and that a pandemic was possible. US diplomats and returning tourists reported that there was a massive effort underway to treat people and contain the virus in the City of Wuhan (see:
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/coronavirus-live-updates ). The Obama Administration had established a small monitoring group to monitor potential pandemics following the experiences from the SARs outbreak in 2003. (see:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3329048/ )
This task force was expanded to about 200 Federal employees (with additional expert resources available) when the H1N1 virus emerged in 2009. (see:
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/2009-h1n1-pandemic.html )
In 2017, the outgoing Obama Administration briefed the incoming Trump Administration on pandemics and the global (and US) implications. (see:
https://thehill.com/policy/healthca...through-global-pandemic-exercise-in-2017 ). It appears that the Administration disbanded the pandemic-monitoring group and we were asleep-at-the-wheel! The President downplayed the threat and critical time (8 weeks?) was lost.
