Lobbyists erode politics in the US

As a Washington D.C.-based journalist, I have been asked by friends from China about how real is the political TV drama series, House of Cards. Drama is drama. Certain plots do exist somewhere at certain times, but it would be wrong to generalize it as daily life on Capitol Hill and in the White House.

However, most Chinese don't get a sense of that unique creature in US politics, especially in Washington D.C., namely the huge army of lobbyists.

In China, these people trying to buy influence would be immediately associated with bribery and corruption, as the Chinese words guanxi (connections) and houmen (back door) suggest. But in Washington, lobbying is a legal profession, consisting mostly of lawyers.