Before the virus was announced at the end of November, there was a revolt in a town a couple of hundred miles from the Hong Kong border. The protest was the decision to build a crematorium capable of cremating 1000 bodies per day. At the time, I thought it was related to the Hong Kong protests, although now I am not sure. In December, the doctors started sharing information about this new pneumonia attacking people. If I could draw your attention to the date on this article:

The outbreak has prompted Singapore and Hong Kong to bring in screening processes for travellers from the city.

It is a certainty the virus had hopped the border before China admitted the seriousness. China closed the land borders to neighbouring areas, but they kept international flights going.

Regardless, it is important for people to realize the difference between closing borders and lockdowns. These are two different policies, and they have different effects.

Closing borders was effective with both SARS and MERS. It limited the spread to a few thousand people. They didn't isolate China or the subsequent countries that found the infection, and millions have died.

Was that incompetence, malice or venality?