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Money, sex, power and scandal. Netflix’s political thriller “House of Cards,” about a ruthlessly ambitious American politician, has drawn millions of Chinese viewers with these themes, which are largely prohibited on state television.

So, is the United States really that corrupt? The answer is a resounding yes, and, for that matter, so are other Western countries, according to an article posted this week on the website of the Chinese Communist Party’s top corruption investigation group, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

“House of Cards” found an avid audience among China’s urban middle class, and even senior officials have professed to be fans. The show has spurred the sales of merchandise ranging from T-shirts emblazoned with the image of its main character, Frank Underwood, to home rowing machines. So perhaps it’s no surprise that the article, too, has tried to capitalize on the show’s success.



Coming as President Xi Jinping spearheads a vigorous anticorruption drive against both “tigers and flies” — senior and junior cadres — the article seems aimed at deflecting possible damage to the government’s image from reports of official malfeasance by reminding everyone: Western countries are just as bad, or worse.

Titled “From the Popularity of ‘House of Cards': A Perspective on Corruption in Western Developed Countries,” the article was written by Zhao Lin, of the Institute of China Supervision, an organization affiliated with the Ministry of Supervision.

Mr. Zhao writes that, because Western countries portray themselves as “upright,” American dramas that touch on political corruption, such as “House of Cards,” have taken many Chinese viewers by surprise. (It is debatable, however, whether Chinese citizens are shaken by the scale of American corruption depicted in these shows, given that recent evidence of Chinese officials’ excess includes a gold and gemstone-encrusted statue of Mao Zedong and the discovery of a ton of cash in a bureaucrat’s home.)

“Corruption as a chronic social illness is deeply rooted in the political, economic and cultural soil of Western developed countries,” Mr. Zhao explained. “Not only are they unable to eradicate their own corruption, they have become the instigator of the internationalization of corruption.”

The article displays a screenshot from a “House of Cards” episode in which a lobbyist meets with Frank Underwood. It carries the caption: “Lobbying transactions are a common occurrence in the United States.” (Interestingly, the article never explores the accuracy of the suggestions of Chinese corruption in Season 2 of “House of Cards.”)

Mr. Zhao provides examples of official corruption in the West: Two Pennsylvania judges pocketing more than $2.6 million from the builder of juvenile detention centers in exchange for sentencing teenagers to those facilities, President Jacques Chirac of France and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel being sentenced on corruption charges, and illegal campaign contribution scandals in Australia.

This sort of corruption has deep historical roots, Mr. Zhao argues. The enormity of kickbacks, extortion and other ills in 18th-century England and 19th-century America leave one “staring stunned and speechless.”

Western multinationals are also guilty and have “exported” corruption to other countries, he says. The British East India Company’s economic plunder and political control of China and India, for example, was achieved by wooing and bribing officials. In modern times, Western companies have shifted to “more subtle means,” he argues, citing the recent GlaxoSmithKline bribery scandal.

Western countries conceal corruption by giving it a veneer of legitimacy, Mr. Zhao says. American laws, for example, allow interest groups to make campaign contributions to political candidates. Lobbying is not only supported by the United States Constitution, but is seen as expressing the very essence of political activity under democratic ideals. Mr. Zhao also says that Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index “clearly carries ideological bias” because it is financed by Western developed countries.

Without discussing in detail government abuses in China or the country’s anticorruption campaign, Mr. Zhao concludes that China is different from Western countries and thus that continuing on the anticorruption road with Chinese characteristics is the only “correct way” to curb corruption.

The article follows other recent editorials in state media that have extolled the superiority of the Chinese system. This month, People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, published an editorial warning readers against the “trap of Western-style democracy.”