In an article printed to its official WeChat account on Tuesday, the Chinese language Ministry of State Safety (MSS) accused unnamed “international organizations” of attempting to brainwash Chinese language youth into “mendacity flat” (additionally “mendacity down” or “slacking off”), a meme-fueled life-style pattern that eschews the rat race for an easier, slower-paced, much less bold life. The article alleges that these hostile international forces have been protecting themselves busy bankrolling anti-China media retailers, think-tanks, and on-line influencers to mass-produce brief video content material and unfold messages equating laborious work with exploitation, upholding slackerism as a type of justice, and insisting {that a} lack of social mobility makes striving pointless. Exhorting readers to “Be vigilant! Beware the sinister manipulators behind slackerist rhetoric” and “Break away! Resist the senseless crowd, and lead a smart life,” the piece ends with a rousing name for China’s younger individuals to work laborious, try for a greater life, and contribute to rejuvenating and strengthening the nation.
The MSS article was extensively republished beneath varied headlines and promoted by state-media retailers akin to Xinhua, China Information Service, China Central Tv (CCTV), and China Nationwide Radio (CNR). It additionally unfold throughout Chinese language social media, together with Weibo, the place the hashtag #Overseas Organizations Bankroll Influencers to Promote Slackerism rose to the highest of the trending search listing. On websites and platforms akin to Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, Kuaishou, Zhihu, and others, the piece was met with a collective eyeroll, as feedback sections have been flooded with responses from readers difficult the framing of the MSS article, questioning the existence of those “hostile international forces,” and stating that the “mendacity flat” motion grew out of frustration with home elements akin to excessive unemployment, unrelenting competitors, extreme extra time and “996” schedules, weak labor-law enforcement, and declining social mobility. Some commenters famous a whiff of desperation within the MSS article, and questioned if the Chinese language authorities, thrown right into a panic by seemingly intractable financial issues, had resorted to “taking pictures at ghosts,” i.e. blaming unnamed enemies for their very own woes. (Earlier this month, the MSS printed one other pretty alarmist article, “Seeing By way of the Spy ‘Playbook’ in Spring Recruitment,” which warns current graduates to be alert to international intelligence operatives and businesses trying to “disguise themselves as official corporations or analysis establishments” throughout spring hiring season.)
CDT Chinese language editors have compiled a few of the current feedback on the MSS put up from Weibo, Kuaishou, and X, a collection of that are translated under. Among the many themes are skepticism that unnamed “hostile international forces” are in charge for China’s home structural or financial woes; jokes about bosses and others of their day by day lives being covert international forces; humorous requests for secure, profitable jobs “inside the system”; and confusion over blended messaging that appears to forbid each “mendacity down” and “rising up” to take a stand:
Weibo commenter from Guangdong: Don’t attempt to blame “international forces” if younger persons are “mendacity down”; that gained’t resolve the issue. As an alternative, take into account when “lie-downism” first turned well-liked. The phrase “six wallets” cropped up round 2018, when authorities consultants have been actively encouraging younger {couples} to pool their financial savings and their mother and father’ and in-laws’ financial savings (i.e. “six wallets”) to purchase properties. If younger individuals took a step again and realized this meant draining the financial savings—and the longer term—of their complete household to purchase one measly home, you possibly can see why they’d take into account “mendacity down” a extra smart choice, proper? The “six wallets” concept is only one of many elements contributing to lie-downism.
雷诺2023: Clearly, anybody who decides to not get married or have children has been bewitched by hostile international forces.
椌蕪花園理髮店: Appears like an excellent deal, really. If somebody’s keen to subsidize you to slack off, why wouldn’t you are taking them up on it?
黑风大王生气气: First specify who you’re speaking about. Firing at imaginary enemies is meaningless.
SKrAs299792458: Come on, if you happen to’re attempting to scare us, you are able to do higher than that!
大岛元太: I think my boss is a “hostile international drive,” as a result of we work ourselves to dying every single day, however we’re nonetheless broke. Clearly, our spymaster boss is utilizing this tactic to incite workers to slack off, the diabolical fiend.
有味的光: Seems that hostile international forces are fairly uninteresting. Their nefarious plots are the identical lame, boring issues I rise up to.
mikuoa: Give everybody a two-day weekend, an eight-hour workday, and the complete “5 social insurances” plus the “housing provident fund.” Implement the Labor Regulation correctly, and people hostile international forces shall be speechless.
用户7969870671: O Nice Group, you had me at “slacking off.” Now, the place do I enroll?
ke_cheng23602: “Overseas organizations” is a catch-all time period, a basket you possibly can stuff something into. Weak economic system? Blame international organizations. Low beginning fee? Pin it on these international organizations. Low marriage fee, excessive divorce fee? Darn these hostile international organizations. Every thing’s their fault.
POI_KakuSAMA: “Mendacity flat” [躺平, tǎngpíng] clearly impinges on the sacred identify of the present Emperor. Such a taboo phrase should be sanctioned. The Emperor should all the time stand agency, and by no means lie down. [The second character (平, píng, meaning “flat,” “even,” “level”), is also the last character in Xi Jinping’s name (习近平, Xí Jìnpíng). In Chinese imperial culture, using the characters in the ruling Emperor’s given name in certain contexts was considered taboo.]
XIAOQINGMANTAN: In case you don’t need your “oxen and horses” to lie flat, you want to really present jobs for them. Is there anybody who’s unaware of the dire employment state of affairs in China proper now?
lingjlng2: That is fairly humorous. The poor little spin docs can’t even maintain their tales straight anymore. 😂
jenner70873905: Hostile international forces: “Apparently everybody’s on our payroll, which mainly quantities to nobody being on the payroll.”
sfflwbd: Superb, we gained’t slack off anymore. Tomorrow we’ll rouse ourselves and go demand some accountability from corrupt officers.
云千河: I don’t wish to be a slacker. I need a authorities job the place I can “put down roots on the grassroots stage.” [a reference to a phrase used in the MSS article.]
慈悲心肠: I wish to be a public servant so I can Serve the Folks.
Frebel_L: If everybody slacked off, who’d be left to take advantage of?
youran8964: The CCP is terrified that if the “chives” begin slacking, they gained’t be capable of chop them down any extra.
wurenhua: The CCP can slack off, however the Chinese language individuals aren’t allowed to.
没有粗面x: The “oxen and horses” would relatively daydream than maintain their noses to the grindstone, and all of our issues are brought on by outsiders.
gfwsucks: Since we aren’t allowed to lie down, does this imply we will rise up and storm the barricades? [Chinese]
Along with the voluble on-line backlash to the MSS piece, CDT editors have noticed some on-line censorship of the subject. Weibo seems to have banned the hashtag #Mendacity Flat as soon as extra; it had been topic to short-term bans previously. CDT has additionally documented the closure of WeChat account 野柚的显微镜 (yě yòu de xiǎnwēijìng, “wild pomelo microscope”) after it printed an article criticizing the MSS for “reopening the wound” of the dying of instructional influencer Zhang Xuefeng. Zhang, who died of a coronary heart assault final month on the age of 41, was extensively identified for his relentless work ethic, penchant for long-distance working, and behavior of getting by on solely three or 4 hours of sleep an evening. In some ways, Zhang epitomized each the highs and the lows of up to date ambition and striving. One other article just lately added to CDT’s archive, from WeChat blogger Mu Qi Says, cites statistics from the Worldwide Labour Group (ILO) displaying that the typical annual variety of working hours per individual in China is 2,548 hours, the very best among the many OECD nations. Mu Qi argues that Chinese language individuals have by no means actually “slacked off,” and actually, they need to be inspired to work fewer hours and benefit from the fruits of China’s previous financial development and “demographic dividends.”
The “mendacity flat” or “mendacity down” motion, which first turned well-liked in 2021, has been the goal of presidency criticism and suppression earlier than. In Might of 2021, a “lie-downism” Douban group with near 10,000 members was banned; a month later, a censorship directive ordered e-commerce platforms to cease promoting merchandise that includes slacker-themed memes or slogans. In 2023, after an official marketing campaign tried to counter slacker sentiment by touting the “Purple Flag Canal Spirit,” unemployed and underemployed Chinese language younger individuals have been unimpressed and unconvinced: some countered that they “weren’t a lot mendacity down as discovering it not possible to get forward.” In opposition to the backdrop of persistently excessive youth unemployment, officers banned quite a lot of well-liked “mendacity down” influencers and vloggers in the summertime of 2025.
