beijing <u+2014> the chinese state news media has already declared a winner in the scandal-stained race for the white house: one-party dictatorship. the chinese communist party uses every presidential election to excoriate american democracy for its failings and argue that one-party rule works fine for china . but this year has offered an embarrassment of riches for gloating, most recently a 2005 recording of donald j. trump bragging about sexual assault . <u+201c>the american election again plumbs new depths in its bottom line,<u+201d> read the headline of an editorial from xinhua , the main state news agency, on monday. <u+201c>in the farce of american politics, these blowups have been coming faster than you can turn the pages of a book,<u+201d> the editorial said. <u+201c>the absence of any bottom line in party competition has already evolved into an absence of a moral bottom line,<u+201d> it said. <u+201c>the voters never see the lowest point, because things just keep getting even lower.<u+201d> not everyone in china buys that official viewpoint. for quite a few chinese, especially middle-class people in their 20s and 30s with more exposure to the world, the spectacle of parties competing for support, and of the news media taking on the candidates, is uplifting, despite all the dirt. <u+201c>those kinds of things shouldn<u+2019>t be allowed to be said,<u+201d> zhou xinyu, a website editor, said of the recording of mr. trump. <u+201c>but i still think the american political system is actually great,<u+201d> mr. zhou, 22, said in an interview. <u+201c>if you look at chinese politics, you can find many of the same type of people. what type is that? rich people who feel like they can get away with anything.<u+201d> still, the scandals <u+2014> including hillary clinton <u+2019>s use of a private email server and excerpts from leaked speeches that she gave to banking and finance audiences <u+2014> could reinforce skepticism that democracy has anything better to offer china. <u+201c>the chinese political system has its problems, but american politics is also really dark,<u+201d> said wu man, 32, a filmmaker. <u+201c>i<u+2019>m a pessimist, and i am particularly cynical when it comes to politics,<u+201d> ms. wu said. <u+201c>there<u+2019>s no real democracy. or, we can say that democracy is also a system dominated by interests. trump is representative of that.<u+201d> that<u+2019>s a theme the communist party has taken up with gusto. even before mr. trump<u+2019>s latest crisis, chinese newspapers and journals were depicting him and mrs. clinton as puppets of wealthy elites, competing to do their masters<u+2019> bidding. <u+201c>for a long time, the united states trumpeted the extraordinary excitement of its elections as a symbol of its superior institutions,<u+201d> an editorial in people<u+2019>s daily , the main communist party newspaper, said on sunday. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s time for this <u+2018>teacher of democracy<u+2019> to put away its super self-confidence and arrogance.<u+201d> chinese politics is far more secretive than the noisy contention of western democracy. still, china regularly produces its own eye-popping scandals. on sunday, the former communist party chief of yunnan province in southwest china was given a suspended death sentence after a court found him guilty of taking almost $37 million in bribes and possessing <u+201c>huge amounts<u+201d> of other unexplained wealth. but the state news media treats such cases as vindicating the party, showing that leaders are serious about wiping out corruption. chinese television has not shown the american presidential debates live, but interested people <u+2014> and there are many <u+2014> can follow closely on internet broadcasts and through quick chinese translations of the debates. chinese shared photographs of the latest debate online, doctored to look as if mrs. clinton and mr. trump were in a karaoke standoff. and mr. trump may buck the assumption that chinese people prefer republican candidates, because they are seen as more pragmatic. a survey of 3,154 chinese citizens in april and may overseen by the pew research center found that 37 percent viewed mrs. clinton favorably and 35 percent saw her unfavorably, while 22 percent saw mr. trump favorably and 40 percent unfavorably. <u+201c>democracy gives everyone free speech, but trump is a public figure,<u+201d> said ms. wu, the filmmaker. <u+201c>i personally certainly do not like trump, but i feel that the american people generally are also nationalist and very frightening.<u+201d> but the ministry of foreign affairs is staying out of the fight. asked at a briefing on monday about mr. trump<u+2019>s crude boasts, a spokesman, geng shuang, said : <u+201c>we do not comment on remarks made by relevant candidates in the u.s. presidential election.<u+201d> follow chris buckley on twitter @chubailiang . emily feng contributed research. get news and analysis from asia and around the world delivered to your inbox every day with the today<u+2019>s headlines: asian morning newsletter. sign up here . a version of this article appears in print on october 12, 2016, on page a10 of the new york edition with the headline: for china<u+2019>s leaders, u.s. race makes case for one-party rule. order reprints | today's paper | subscribe
for china<u+2019>s leaders, u.s. election scandals make the case for one-party rule
chris buckley