Officials who 'lie flat' named publically

A town in Foshan, Guangdong province, has become the center of discussions online after its Party committee named and shamed officials it claimed had been coasting in their roles.

Last week, the Party committee of Nanshan township in Foshan published the list, which contained the names of eight officials, and called for people who disagreed with their assessment to file their thoughts within a week. The officials named in the notice were said to be "leisurely lying flat".

To "lie flat", or tangping, is a popular online catchphrase used to describe the mentality of those who have chosen to coast despite facing challenges in life. Originally, the phrase was invented to show the helplessness of people trapped in a rat race that has little significance, but as time went by it has also been used to criticize people who are not enterprising or not making an effort to improve.

Pictures of the list and the online catchphrase being used in such an official document drew the attention of netizens. While some raised doubts on how such a list was formed and whether it was impartial, others believed that publicizing the officials' names in such a manner suggested they have violated existing disciplinary rules and are being penalized.

Responding to the questions, the town said that publicizing the list was part of a carefully crafted plan issued in July to encourage officials to work harder and better serve the people, and was not made on a whim.

Huang Hengjian, a member of Nanshan's Party committee, said publicizing the list was one of the 20 measures exploring ways to award hard-working officials and spur on ones who lacked enthusiasm in their work so that they can "blush and sweat" a little.

"We interviewed 170 workers in government organizations with more than 300 people on work discipline, attitude and efficiency, and made an initial list," Huang told local media Nanfang Plus. "Later we talked to all the workers in some problematic departments and had anonymous votes."

He elaborated that the town designed seven metrics to evaluate whether the officials had been "leisurely lying flat", including work discipline, attitude, capability and efficiency, adding that three documents were created to detail how such an evaluation should proceed.

Huang said that being on the list did not mean that these officials failed to perform their duties, nor was it a disciplinary punishment. Instead, it served as an alert, as some of them showed weaker capability and attitude, such as coming to work late and leaving early.

According to the documents, those who remained on the list will have six months to rectify their work approach. After the period, if they show improvement, they will be removed from the list.

It is not the first instance of the phrase "lie flat" being used in an official document to push for better performance from officials.

Binhai county of Yancheng, Jiangsu province, launched a campaign in June 2022 to "find those lying flat" among officials by voting anonymously, and seven officials who received more than a third of the votes in their departments were asked to improve — although that time the names of the individuals were not revealed. A similar campaign in February 2022 in Jingning, Zhejiang province, named three entire departments as "lying flat", and they were told to rectify their performances.

In an editorial, ThePaper.cn said that asking officials not to "lie flat" would be a vivid way of describing an upbeat work attitude, but having public appraisals and revealing names should be done with caution. Instead, if government departments can design ways to mobilize officials' enthusiasm and award them accordingly, they don't even have to worry about anyone "lying flat".