Chinese House of Cards receives a thumbs-up

London, April 8: A dashing detective bursts into a secret villa and uncovers huge stacks of cash stashed in fridges, closets and beds.

Meanwhile, the villa’s owner — a government official — crawls on the floor and begs for his life.

This is the dramatic opening scene in China’s latest hit TV show, In the Name of the People, which made its high-profile debut last month.

The series, about China’s anti-corruption campaign, has gripped millions of viewers across the country. Some have compared it to the American political drama House of Cards, which has a huge Chinese following.

The Name of the People chronicles the internal power struggle of the Chinese Communist Party in the fictional city of Jingzhou, featuring stories about Chinese politics that are often talked about but never seen on mainstream television.

In the show, local government leaders try to sabotage a top justice’s arrest order; laid-off workers hold violent protests against a corrupt deal between the government and a corporation; and fake police drive bulldozers into forced eviction sites.

Viewers have been lapping it up. “This TV drama feels so real. It really cheers people up,” one viewer wrote on social media network Weibo.

“I shed tears after watching this drama. This is the tumour of corruption that has been harming the people,” said another Weibo commenter. What makes the show remarkable is not just how frankly it depicts the ugly side of Chinese politics, but that it also has the blessing of the country’s top prosecutors’ office. More than a decade ago, anti-corruption dramas disappeared from Chinese primetime TV.

Authorities in 2004 had decided to restrict the production of such dramas.