It's easy to point fingers from the sidelines. I'm curious how this would've progressed if the virus had originated in the US instead and how much better it would've been handled.
Although, ironically, they originate in China because of too little government control over hygiene in wet markets and game meat, not too much authoritarianism.
China (country), India and Africa (continent) each separately have > 1/6 of the World Population.
So, even if human disease came randomly, it would have a 50% chance of being from these 3 areas.
What is surprising is that the high population densities of the Philippines haven't correlated to disease.
The Chinese government promotes "traditional medicine" for nationalistic reasons, and I suspect it's playing a significant role in these zoonotic diseases -- not to mention the extinction of rhinos and whatnot.
Granted, there's an underground in every country I'm sure, and if all things were equal with the rules and enforcement, your argument would be much more reasonable.
China isn't unique here, it's also the case for most of Africa and other South East Asian countries.
The federal and local governments in the U.S. do not have the same power as CCP to suppress the "rumor". The eight doctors would not have been reprimanded by the local police for discussing the new virus in private online groups. The Trump administration would not have power to tell the CDC to shut up. The Trump administration would not have power to force the CDC to under-report counts. The states would not cooperate with the federal government to under-report counts.
The dust-up with the NOAA and the White House last year over a hurricane is probably a good model for what a CDC / White House disagreement might look like. Recall that during that episode, the White House directed NOAA to disavow the claims of forecasters that went against the president’s claim that Alabama was in Dorian’s line of fire.