The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Since its first report in December 2019, despite great efforts made in almost every country worldwide, this disease continues to spread globally, especially in most parts of Europe, Iran, and the United States. Here, we update the recent understanding in clinical characteristics, diagnosis strategies, as well as clinical management of COVID-19 in China as compared to Italy, with the purpose to integrate the China experience with the global efforts to outline references for prevention, basic research, treatment as well as final control of the disease. Being the first two countries we feel appropriate to evaluate the evolution of the disease as well as the early result of the treatment, in order to offer a different baseline to other countries. It is also interesting to compare two countries, with a very significant difference in population, where the morbidity and mortality has been so different, and unrelated to the size of the country.