The inspection department of China's ruling Communist Party has highlighted the American fictional TV show "House of Cards" as a potential basis for the level of corruption in the US.

On Tuesday, the Discipline Inspection Commission published a long article citing the American TV drama depicting a crooked version of Washington as an illustration of how corrupt the US is.

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This prompted Chinese netizens to raise their eyebrows and highlight the real existence of corruption in their own country, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Written by anticorruption personnel Zhao Lin, the lengthy article questioned the reality of the corruption problems depicted in "House of Cards", "American Gangster" and other TV dramas. The author said these shows come as a surprise to Chinese audiences, because they go against the Western countries' utter pride in the integrity of their governments.

The said article became popular on Tuesday and had stood out from the many headlines featured on the website of the agency. The site contained links to various write-ups about China's recent fight against corruption that was launched 18 months ago by the Communist Party.

"House of Cards" has not only captured the attention of American TV viewers, but the Chinese viewers as well. Some commentators in China see the show as an illustration of the real situation in Washington, while others simply see it as a good TV show.

On Tuesday, commentators have begun trashing Zhao's suggestion of foreign TV shows depicting reality in other countries. They even criticized China corruption problems, saying no other 'dirty politics' could top the one in their own government.

State Information Center senior government researcher Fan Jianping took to his Weibo account his reaction to Zhao's article, citing a famously corrupt Qing Dynasty official. In his post, Fan asked if He Shen's corruption was related to the situation in the West, and went on to say that the official did not relocate his family to Western nations.

One commentator likened Chinese officials to an "unwashed beggar" for criticizing the Western officials for their "unwashed hands."

Another netizens wrote that the corruption in the US can only be seen on TV shows but they can feel their "own corruption in real time."

Meanwhile, Chinese authorities are growing increasingly concerned about their lack of control over their citizens' growing interest in watching imported TV shows such as the "House of Card". The government is worried that people will start dropping state-directed local content in favor of these international shows.

TagsUS corruption, China corruption, Zhao Lin