I haven't even seen Servant Of The People (though had heard of it, even when it was perhaps the most important thing Volodimir had yet accomplished), but don't forget that it was a comic/satirical take on the situation. I'm also not sure how seriously and literal anyone would have been expected to take the series's 'facts'.
Something like The West Wing (an entertainment/drama depicting the situations that a fictional President of the US, and his administration has to navigate) occasionally talked of things that (named) middle-eastern countries, etc, were doing, consistent with contemporary international politics (it started showing prior to 9/11, but went well into the era of Afghanistan and the subsequent Iraqi 'intervention', in the Real World™ ), just for verisimilitude in portraying a 'realistic' drama in the parallel universe where this other man was President. Other times, fictional depictions might use a "Fictionlandia", "Imaginedivia" or "Madeupistan" placeholder.
I suppose sometimes there's a deliberate and pointed direct allusion to how another country is actually perceived to do actual things, rather than just extending the fictional events further than the 'home territory' of the production. I imagine
every country has its own standard levels of casual mischief (even up to full blown propoganda) in alluding to what happens in other countries, as well as itself. Up-playing and down-playing both positive and negative qualities as it seems necessary. Whether or not justified, I imagine memos (at the very least) are occasionally passed between the respective governments making representations about how well these things are 'appreciated' by the nation concerned.
And perhaps there could be the 'safer' option of just referencing an even more 'out there' real state, such as North Korea. Which maybe you'll be aware of as having... 'extreme' forms of justice, but I don't know how well the same news that percolates out to our kinds of country (not exactly on the "friends" list of the North Korea) manages to spread in your own nation (which maintains a greater degree of cross-border support/'friend-zoning'). But, honestly, there's little reason to hold back on creating fictional problems, there, as they're already unhappy with us and seem to have plenty of real problems already (which, if referencing in a comedic light, might even be considered
too cruel and serious - leave all that to actual news and/or diplomatic announcements).
What exactly is currently China's medical corruption, and how it handles it, might or might not be useful over here (i.e. the UK). Or anywhere else, as I know you were concerned about the US in a prior post. Right now, we in the UK have got the fallout from a rather infamous nurse-gone-rogue (i.e. how we did not stop her sooner),
and the separate but still lingering key issues of disagreement between medical professionals and the government. It'd be hard to apply the phrase "corruption" to either. Perhaps mismanagement(/ineptness) and over-management. Possibly, to some perspectives, under-management. Characterising the US situation is a different issue, yet again, naturally.
To paraphrase Tolstoy[1],
perhaps "All functional systems are alike; each disfunctional system is disfunctional in its own way."
[1] The original, if this link works for you
is here[/here]. Even if not, the URL itself should be readable enough to reconstruct the whole thing! 
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Topic: Cathay and Formosa discussion thread (Read 13631 times)