I think the CCP did enough stupid things to balance out any benefit of swift and decisive action (taken way later than it should have been). Part of the reason

I think the CCP did enough stupid things to balance out any benefit of swift and decisive action (taken way later than it should have been). Part of the reason China has to weld people into their apartment buildings is that there is no trust, and no compliance in the society: every rule can be broken, even ones that should be obvious to any educated person. The country's failed post-Mao culture, and worthless self-serving government organs, have conspired to make the infection dramatically more deadly than should have been necessary. I think probably a lot of people will come away with the same impression that you did, but I think they'll be mistaken to think that China's authoritarianism has somehow saved them; after all, the government was sponsoring massive public shared-dish banquets in mid January within three km of the epicentre of the infection, televising crowds of people having religious experiences, wailing to the camera that they don't need masks, and that the government will take care of them.