I'm sorry, but in this case, China is the country who told the rest of the world what to do and the west, with its superiority mentality over the east, ignored it and got a while year economy down the drain.
In my book, conspiracies will always make their way to those who want to believe them.
Many such examples exist. China did not lead by example, at all. What a strange take.
We could have double the death rate and I still wouldn't concede this. And I wear a mask, wife and I wfh. Kid is still at home.
All they did was try to downplay it and cover it up, until it had spread not only throughout China, but the rest of the world. That's despite having systems in place for exactly the purpose of catching viruses like covid-19 early and quickly.
It's a great example of why ineffective bureaucracy, combined with a bad system of governance and a culture where saving face is hugely important, is harmful to humanity.