So what were these ways? And why did they work so well?
A very valid question. With regard to China, as we all know, it is an authoritarian government. That means people were not allowed to leave their homes at all, except for one visit to the supermarket so many times a week. They had to download and fill in a slip and show it to the police when they did go to the supermarket. No other outings allowed. None! At all! For three months. No one was on the streets, and the city borders were closed. This is Wuhan. No one could leave the city, no one could enter, even if their home was there. So that’s how China were different. They also made all new arrivals to the country isolate for two weeks in a hotel, everyone wherever they came from. Any city where a Covid case arose went into a similar lockdown to Wuhan.
I don’t know what Taiwan did, except completely close their borders at first.