You need to read the laws in China where they require any chinese company or individual to hand over data to the chinese government on request, no exception, no lawsuit, period.
That is exactly how the world got into this situation in the first place. China covered it up and basically said nothing to see there. And the world believed in them and didn't put on guard against them. Until the disease spread to other countries and they no longer could cover it up. Then they say "hey look you have it too!"
If we can miniaturize nuclear reactors to the point that they can be drop-in replacements for batteries, then we can potentially run our electronics, appliances, machinery, vehicles standalone for decades without refuel/recharge.
There has been critics in Asia on that the ex-Director General (2006-2017) of WHO, Margaret Chan, who was sponsored by China for the position, had been building up influence in the organization for China during her term so WHO would work in China's favour. Its effect is showing this time in how WHO handled this incident. Instead of taking a lead and look into the whether China had handled the pandemic properly upon its onset, WHO just parrot China's official stance, in fear of offending China.
I don't think you follow the news there. Just because you've only heard it yesterday doesn't make it new. The neighbouring countries have been on guard on the issue. There have been lots of news, leaks and complaints on this issue for the past several weeks. In fact the wet market in Wuhan had been officially "closed" for at least 3 weeks due to the disease. That means the pandemic has been spreading far longer than that.
Now they suddenly started to release updated numbers (due to pressure from their neighbouring countries) and you think it'd only "escalated in a week".
The Chinese central government has already admitted their officials have been trying to cover it up. The president Xi had made it clear that he would "nail" the officials who are covering it up on the "pillar of shame" and those people will be "criminals of 10 thousand years".
You don't understand how things work in China. It has nothing to do with ethics. You give up free speech so you can make a few bucks in China. But in the long run they will only let their own companies thrive. Those the communist party can control. You will be eaten alive.
As for control, intense power struggle is happening at the top right now, between Xi fraction and his opponents. Of course due to the opaque nature of Chinese politics nobody is sure.
Xi wants to be China's most powerful man since Mao but he is very insecure. So he is tightening control of the whole China, including Hong Kong (the extradition bill). It is working in the mainland but in Hong Kong it caused a blowback.
Yes, I didn't make those things up. They are not all from a single source though. I don't keep a list of everything I have read but here is one (in chinese):
It is said (by his acquaintances) that Chairman Xi is not a smart guy ("brain dead" is the word). He only has elementary to junior high level of education. Anything higher (including his "PhD") is fake.
His solution to every problem is fight (power struggle) until all your opponents are down. It may work in China's party politics but if taken to the international level, it fails. You can see this same solution being applied to the handling of Hong Kong.
He also believes that China is invincible because they have this massive supply chain thing which nobody else has.