After Xi Jinping took office as the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, he launched an anti-corruption campaign to purge political opponents and at the same time banned officials at all levels from criticizing the central government, leading many officials across the country to adopt a “lying flat” attitude and become passive and idle. Recently, the Beijing authorities have been continuing to crack down on officials practicing the “lying flat” approach in various regions, but it seems to have minimal effect. Some analysts believe that officials adopting the “lying flat” stance to resist Xi Jinping’s centralized power indicates an unprecedented crisis facing the CCP regime.
“The China News Weekly” published an article on November 28 titled “Behind the Adjustment of ‘Lying Flat’ Officials in Many Places,” mentioning that various regions in China have started to rectify officials who practice the “lying flat” mentality.
According to the article, recently, 8 “lying flat” officials in Mazhang District, Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province, were reassigned. The article pointed out that some local officials have a “lying flat mindset,” exhibiting slow work, making excuses, being evasive, and shirking responsibilities.
The website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC also commented on the “lying flat” officials in Mazhang District on November 20.
What does it mean to be a “lying flat” official? The official explanation is that some officials are passive, complacent, and when faced with problems, they choose to “lie flat,” showing a lack of initiative.
In reality, addressing officials with a “lying flat” attitude is not unique to Mazhang District in Guangdong. In February 2022, three units in Jinyun County, Lishui City, Zhejiang Province were identified as the first batch of “lying flat” individuals for their inaction or even misconduct.
In June 2023, Yunnan Province launched a special campaign to rectify “lying flat” officials. Two months later, Yunnan identified 1410 “lying flat” officials.
Moreover, officials in Jiangsu, Sichuan, Tibet, and many other regions have been disciplined and publicly reported for “lying flat.”
Some provincial-level officials who have fallen from grace have also been accused of “lying flat.” In May 2024, Yang Kening, former Vice Chairman of the Sichuan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, was placed under investigation. The official notice stated he “watered down the major decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, leading to his passive attitude and ‘lying flat.'”
The CCP’s official magazine “Qiushi” published an article by Xi Jinping in March this year, addressing the unique difficulties of governing a large party and a country. It emphasized that strict governance of the Party is not about controlling people to the point of fear and inaction but about setting clear directions and rules.
Regarding this, Wang He, a political commentator living in the United States, told Epoch Times that Xi Jinping’s so-called “difficulty in governing a large party and a country” is fundamentally a question of the CCP’s legitimacy, which has now evolved within the Party into officials resisting Xi’s centralized power through “lying flat,” posing a major crisis.
Wang He believes that officials are now worried that any criticism of the central government could lead to being targeted under the guise of anti-corruption, causing a sense of anxiety and insecurity among officials in the bureaucracy who are choosing to “lie flat” in resistance to Xi, presenting an unprecedented crisis for Xi and the CCP regime.
Since coming to power in 2012, Xi Jinping has used the anti-corruption campaign to eliminate political opponents and, through party discipline regulations, prohibited officials at all levels from criticizing the central government. In 2017, after entering his second term, Xi amended the constitution to indefinitely extend his rule and consolidate power.
In his personal channel program “Tianliang Shifen,” the political commentator Zhang Tianliang, based in the United States, mentioned that Xi Jinping’s contradictory commands have caused officials to collectively adopt the “lying flat” approach in response. Meanwhile, Xi’s centralization of power has further exacerbated officials’ passive and idle behavior through “lying flat.”