In early 2020, Chinese citizens were locked inside their apartments, and people starved to death. The "lockdowns" employed by the West was something exported from China. Prior to covid, "lockdowns" were not considered to be something health officials considered to prevent the spread of contagious viruses.
Lockdowns actually work, just not in any colloquial sense or under democratic republics. If you can physically isolate people within their homes and enforce isolation, then the virus can't spread. The issue with any lockdown the West tried was people were still mobile. People still went to the grocery store, to work, out with friends etc and then most transmission would end up happening in the home. The CCP, like with most communists, are okay with letting people die and violating basic human rights, so confining people to their homes and not allowing them to leave even to go to the grocery store was as close to a true lockdown as possibly obtainable. China lied about their numbers, but there was reporting when Wuhan and other regions went into lockdown and when cities began opening up again back in 2020. Seemed like China may be successful in their lockdown strategy as long as they can drive people to to near suicide by physical isolation. If people starve to death, that's just a bonus to them.
To think there were authoritarians that wanted to adopt China's method.