I can't tell whether Hoover is claiming that
A. it's a conspiracy theory to say that China actually had ten million deaths; or
B. it's a conspiracy theory to say that the numbers from China are utterly untrustworthy.
If he's claiming A, then duh. If he's claiming B, then I directly addressed his claim.
A is an obvious conspiracy theory.
But here's the thing:
So is B.
There's a chance, even a pretty good one, that the officially publicised numbers for China do not actually reflect the real spread or impact of COVID-19 (This is true
globally!).
The point is,
every number you see is inherently flawed. There is simply not enough testing happening for anything else. The chinese government could be completely transparent about every part of the process, and their statistics would still be flawed.
So: To claim that there is
intentional under-reporting is a conspiracy theory. One that has a convincing story behind it, but a conspiracy theory nonetheless
because there is little evidence for it. I can see how one can make the assumption that there is intentional under-reporting happening, hell, I even agree that it's likely, but at the same time: We know that containment measures, taken early and followed consistently
are very effective at reducing the spread and therefore death toll of COVID-19, so there actually is a chance that the underreporting factor
is not as large as you assume.
So, in my admittedly completely unprofessional estimation:
Whether or not the chinese government is under-reporting does. Not. Matter.