They definitely lied and covered up their failure in Hubei province. As for the rest of China - they may be lying to some degree but their response seems to have been similar to what was done in South Korea and Taiwan. Both places have so far managed to keep the outbreak largely under control with rigorous testing/tracing/quarantine along with lockdowns and movement restrictions when needed. This shows that it can be done. Will it work over the long haul, until a vaccine is available? Time will tell. It's certainly resource intensive but obviously saves lives, at least in the short term.
As for the "all countries failed except SK/Taiwan (or China)" that I've seen people using to justify the US response, that's pretty lame. The US prides itself on being a world leader, best medicine, best research, best intelligence services. Where were all those when South Korea and Taiwan were ramping up their preparedness and testing? And before anyone complains about this being a political post, I've said before and I'll say again that the failure was across all levels of government and also includes previous administrations who were supposedly planning for this very event for decades.
