China, for all of their faults, is showing what a omnipowerful central government can do in an emergency. Forced quarantines (welding of apartment doors closed), emergency food distribution, hospitals built in 7 days, and instant ramp-up production of tests and drugs
Until a western/free government handles an equally bad crisis (on week/month zero), one has to believe what Chinese did is as good as it gets
Cases inside China are growing at a sublinear rate.
As far as I can tell, it's the rest of the world (sans a couple countries like Singapore and Taiwan) that are flailing.
If their numbers are faked, then they're also being faked to internal decision makers.
And, for what it's worth, the WHO confirms the numbers are broadly accurate.
If every country in the world had adopted containment procedures as severe as Chinese provinces, this virus almost certainly wouldn't have been able to gain a foothold and we could have avoided the risk of a global pandemic.
As much as China might be faking numbers, you can't hide a pandemic, the signs are simply too obvious.
It's easy to go out and buy groceries, and if you do show symptoms of coronavirus you can rest assured you'll get... help.