Table 2.

Summary of the different responses from China and Western democracies.

	China	Western democracies
Initial response	Denial by suppression	Denial by communication
Governance	Coordination: Centrally controlled administrative regime was able to quickly coordinate with the cities and impose rules and regulations	Lack of coordination: Decentralized power concentration between the city and national governments resulted in lack of coordination
Smart technologies	Smart technologies are deployed ubiquitously	Technologies are selectively deployed
Privacy	Government has unanswered privacy concerns	Governments have clarified their protection of privacy
Activism	Whistle-blowers are not allowed to speak up	Activists can write to the governments and speak up about their rights
Information sharing	Accused of hiding information	Openly share information within and outside the country
Infodemic	Very limited due to censorship	Prevalent due to the mass usage of social media.