Editor's note: Keith Lamb is a University of Oxford graduate with a MSc degree in Contemporary Chinese Studies. His primary research interests are international relations of China and China's "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics." The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

U.S. President Donald Trump believes China is telling lies about the number of people infected with the coronavirus. His logic is that if the U.S. has a certain amount, then China with its population that dwarfs the U.S. must have even more. I'm not here to dispute the figures, I, just like Trump, neither have the capacity to check the ins and outs behind the figures in China or the United States.

However, unlike Trump, I have had the pleasure of being locked down in two countries, namely China and the UK, a country which is handling the virus considerably better than the United States. Being a witness between how these two countries have dealt with the virus can shed light on why China's figures might be significantly lower than a Western state.

I left China in early February. The day I left I had over ten temperature checks going through the airport and getting onto the plane to make sure I didn't have any signs of infection. Upon landing in the UK, to my surprise, nothing happened. There was no social distancing as there had been on Tianjin Airways with each passenger having a row of seats to themselves and except for a leaflet, telling me to dial 111 if I had any symptoms. There was no sign of any change in the UK.

In many ways this was reassuring perhaps calls by the WHO were hyperbolic and Western states knew something they didn't. By the time things were getting bad in Italy, still nothing was being done in the UK. This may be considered worrying considering the outbreak in Italy was about 1,000 miles from where I lived in the UK. This was the same distance from Wuhan to where I lived in China. The advice though was not to lock down. This was a measure considered "draconian" when carried out in China.

However, things were, as I found out, getting out of control in the UK too. A relative of mine working for Britain's National Health Service told me that already there had been a death from coronavirus in the hospital they work in. Hospital staff had been forbidden from going to the media. The government knew but had decided not to release the information.

What's more, hospital workers didn't have masks then, and they still don't have them today. Behind-the-scenes knowledge of the cover-up was leading to petty pilfering of things like hand-wash as hospital workers realized the extent of the situation.

Needless to say, if hospital workers don't have masks then nor does the average UK citizen. Compare this to what I saw for myself in China. It was impossible to do anything in China without wearing a mask. Public transport and access to buildings were all denied without wearing one. Once, after eating food, I forgot to put it on promptly, and this led to me being reminded to put it on again.

In terms of social distancing it was taken much more seriously in China than in the UK. I have witnessed bands of adults clearly drunk on the streets with no regards to the rules set by the government. In contrast, Chinese cities were turned into true "ghost" towns. This is especially true considering the density of Chinese cities. Internet shopping in China ground to a halt while Britain has seen a boom in internet consumption.

Probably, the biggest difference between China and the UK is that so far, I have not had a single medical check. In China, leaving the house to go to the supermarket I would get a temperature check going out of my community, possibly one getting on the bus, definitely one going into the supermarket which repeated again on the way home.

In China, residential buildings and city villages set up temporary barriers to prevent access to them by outsiders. These were manned by neighborhood watches who checked proof of residence and would also give a ubiquitous temperature check. Needless to say, a high temperature would lead to being denied access and a trip to the hospital to check for coronavirus.

My experience is that clearly though China had little warning, the country acted in a rapid, determined and decisive manner to mobilize the entire population against this invisible disease. Despite warnings, states like the United States and the UK had wasted their lead.

Upon seeing the stringent measures China took, it is simply immoral for the United States, and let's not forget some in the British cabinet too, to cover up their own inadequacy and time-wasting by pointing the finger at China. Even worse behind Trump's claims, there is an inherent bias against China, an inherent chauvinism that somehow China, because it's China, couldn't do a better job than the United States.

This is not about cheering for one side. It's about seeking truth from fact so that Western states and China can mutually learn from each other in our shared world. If Trump were a little more honest he would recognize that clearly, China's dealing of the crisis has many advantages. This shouldn't come as any surprise. With the SARS crisis, China learned the need to rapidly mobilize its population and prevent movement. It is precisely this that has led to the relatively low infection rate in today's China.