Don't underestimate the sense of doing what's good for the community and the patriotism of the Chinese people (and I'm sure many others).
I think they understood what was at stake and what had to be done, and did it but not because they are "docile" or because they "fear their government".
2) i wouldn't be so sure that quarantine measures would be such universally disliked. it'll take a couple deaths and a few tv interviews with medical personnel with an overwhelmed hospital in the background to sway the public emotion in the containment direction. it better be executed well, though, or riots become a serious proposition.
Where do you escalate from that? Machine-gunning people in the streets?
But now, we know this virus isn't ebola's death rate combined with measle's R0. Large scale quarantine like in China is probably overkill and quite risky if your population isn't as docile as populations in authoritarians regimes.
Closing schools, cancelling mass events and asking people to work from home if they can is a more measured approach. Even without that, the apocalypse isn't coming anytime soon.
People here aren't as docile as Chinese people and don't fear their government. If a city was quarantined like Wuhan with the situation turning to shit, many people would take to the street to protest instead of staying nicely confined at home.
And if the government's repression got too harsh there, you'd get protests all around the country in support.
That's why I haven't heard anything from my government about potential large-scale quarantine. They know that here it probably would make the situation worse.