Why exactly would China lie about their current situation?

They need their factories back up and running, and they want to avoid having Hong-Kong-like protests pop up everywhere, if people know how Winnie the Pooh has bungled the whole thing.

They have a long history of suppressing the truth. The entire article is enlightening.

Doctors in Wuhan first noticed the novel coronavirus in December and began exchanging urgent warnings. Local government authorities set out to silence them; some were detained and made to sign documents admitting wrongdoing.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/04/china-fake-news-coronavirus-164652

Another on the death toll:
https://www.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/2020/04/did-china-lie-about-its-coronavirus-death-toll.html

Another on the millions of dropped cell phones during the outbreak:
“21 Million Fewer Cellphone Users in China May Suggest a High CCP Virus Death Toll,” proclaimed a headline in The Epoch Times. “China Is Lying About the Number of COVID-
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/china-cellphones-coronavirus/

I don’t trust China to accurately represent numbers on a great many things.
On this particular case, however, a devious thought came to mind.
Suppose a populous country wants to weaken the world, in economy, military, and morale, and do it with no backlash. How could they do that? Perhaps they could cause a manufactured virus, expose some of their citizens who travel internationally, wait for exposure to occur in the rest of the world, then announce they have a virus and people are dying. The treat their own people, and INFLATE their numbers to rid themselves of suspicion.

Just a thought. I have no proof.

I feel like since they make most of their money from exporting goods, they want the world to feel like they’re up and running and the goods can be purchased without fear of contamination.

I don’t think we’re getting the truth from any government sources.

China would like to paint themselves as the world leader in fighting this pandemic. That the US is the worst at it. In January they were still saying that it is not passed from person to person. t is obvious that they want to reduce their own culpability in this mess.
Yes I do believe they are lying about their numbers.

I agree with janbb I don’t think any of the governments are being totally honest.

Because they’re a sick dictatorship headed by a fully certified looncake!