Xi crime drama gets 300 million views

The success of the series extolling Beijing’s anti-corruption and crime campaigns underlines the ruling party’s clever use of entertainment to spread propaganda.

A screenshot from The Knockout trailer. The show has become the most successful production of the new genre created by the Communist Party. Picture: Supplied

A television drama extolling Beijing’s anti-corruption and anti-crime campaigns has become a hit across China, underlining the ruling party’s increasing sophistication in exploiting entertainment to spread propaganda.

The Knockout, a 39-episode series with leading actors and a slick script, has been shown on China Central Television, the state broadcaster, and the streaming site iQIYI. It has dominated the market with more than 300 million daily views, compared with 25 million views for its closest rival.

Its rating on Douban, the review site, has reached 8.8 out of 10, with more than 360,000 reviews. It has become the most successful production of the new genre created by the Communist Party to promote President Xi’s campaigns against corruption and crime.

The ruling party’s central political and legal affairs commission reviewed the drama, using the same language as when it denounces corrupt officials in real life. “In this drama, An Xin, the main character, is a frontline police officer who has adhered to principles,” it said in the review. “But it also has some party officials who have become lost around discipline and law, indulged in life, taken bribes, broken the law and even colluded with criminal elements to harm the interests of the masses.”

Xi launched the campaign soon after he took office in 2012 to restore trust in the party and solidify his rule.

In the Name of the People, a 2017 television drama produced by the production team of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, became one of Xi’s first successes. The plot involved a prosecutor’s efforts to uncover corruption.

In 2018, Xi launched a three-year operation against corrupt officials who protected local gangsters. The Knockout tells such a story. An, the central police officer, spends about 20 years fighting “dark forces”.

It has won high praise with one viewer saying: “If all anti-crime dramas were like this, there’d be no need for me to watch American dramas.”

The Times