I mean, have you seen the Chinese population in China? So much starvation and so much grease and sugar. 10 lane highways have replaced bicycle. China only doesn't have an obesity and diabetes epidemic because the numbers are diluted by the throngs of people starving to death. COVID vaccines also appear to react violently in people who've had certain other diseases (shingles, SARS). Little emperors that subsist on a diet of cake and sugar drinks are everywhere.

SARS-like viruses commonly hit really hard at the beginning and then evolve towards doing less damage an spreading more easily.

Given the evidence, I find it equally likely that COVID just hit their decrepit population far harder than it's hitting our population because we may be fat, but we're way less malnourished.