It is very simple.

If they want to make a comparison, then compare the initial outbreak in China, that spread to Korea and other Asian countries.

A strict lockdown was mandated by the government, and the pandemic was quickly curbed. Not only in China, but in other countries like Vietnam and South Korea.

Other governments decided to be more lax, and logically, the math starts to take over.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/south-korea/

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-exemplar-south-korea

Korea did pretty well controlling the pandemic until recently. Although they currently do not practice the zero-covid policy like the PRC still does. The results should be similar if they did.

If they want to make the claim that what China did was impossible, then that claim has to be charged against other Asian countries who did the same quick lockdowns, unless of course, they were also in on the conspiracy.