Just like it’s better to have a friend who has a boat than to own a boat, it’s better to buy a politician than to be one.

Depends on the level of corruption.

At low levels people buy politicians, at high levels politicians shake down the wealthy.

They're rubber stamp deputies who are selected/invited to NPC because they're important entrepreneurs, which correlates to being billionaires. But they don't influence shit, they know their place, enough to waste a week or two a year at two sessions. Which is precisely the original point - it's safe to build obscene wealth in PRC... close to 1,000 billionaires know how to not be politically retarded vs the minority that don't. Last available IIRC stat was ~15% of billionaires in PRC end up in jail (corruption/CCDI). I don't know that number for US is, but probably too low.

easier to just bribe them then have to show up and do congressional shit.

"why buy the cow for the milk?" etc. etc.

Someone in US congress can earn millions from their offices. But that is amateur money compared to the vast swaths of the Chinese economy controlled by China's red families. Even Wen Jiabao's mom was in on it with a massive jewelry empire (heck, I remember being surprised she was still alive in the 2010s), and the Chinese government only gave credibility to the story that outed this by blocking the NyTimes over it.