China Uses Public Shaming to Motivate State Workers

Chinese government workers have a lot to worry about these days. Cash-strapped local governments are struggling to pay their salaries. Political controls are tightening in the name of national security. A yearslong anti-corruption purge shows no sign of ending.

Now, the workers also have to make sure not to get slapped with a “Snail Award” — a designation that more localities are rolling out to shame their lowest-performing employees.

“Through this sarcastic ‘encouragement,’ the awardees can blush and sweat and refresh their minds,” read one commentary on a Communist Party-affiliated website, noting that they had hurt the party and the government’s credibility by just “getting by.”

Perhaps now more than ever, the Chinese government cannot afford to have its officials slacking off. As economic growth slows, it needs leaders to introduce new projects, attract investors and inspire ordinary people — in essence, unleash the dynamism that powered China’s rise.

But many officials seem unmotivated, if not outright afraid to act. Under China’s hard-line leader, Xi Jinping, the state has cracked down on various sectors, from internet companies to private-tutoring firms to finance. It has become impossible to guess what might be next in line. Any policy that deviates from the central government’s could be seen as politically disloyal.

Whereas officials once competed to claim flashy infrastructure projects, officials have more recently been punished for raising money or pushing forward construction projects without authorization. The safest route, it seems, is to do nothing.

Until it’s not. Amid the flurry of calls for officials to step up, at least three cities have been giving out snail awards, according to People’s Daily, the party’s official mouthpiece. Video clips on Chinese social media, taken from a state-run television show in Sichuan Province, show stony-faced men in suits being handed framed certificates.

That is one of the gentler punishments. An urban district in Guangdong Province said that it had set up a database to track officials it said were “lying flat” — Chinese slang for slacking off. Other places have boasted of reassigning or firing employees.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party’s internal anti-corruption body, said last month that it punished 138,000 officials in 2024 for offenses including “irresponsibility,” “inaction” or “pretending to work.” That was more than double the number the year before, and by far the category with the most people punished. The second-most-common offense, improperly giving or receiving gifts, had half as many culprits.

“Taking tough measures to deal with ‘lying flat cadres’ is actually to protect the enthusiasm and initiative of those who are doing things and being enterprising,” the anti-graft body said in a recent article.

Trying to frighten already scared officials into action, of course, may not be a recipe for success. So the central authorities have also tried to strike a more reassuring tone. On Monday, Mr. Xi met with some of the country’s top entrepreneurs, which many observers saw as a signal of a renewed embrace of the private sector. That could nudge local governments to be more willing to collaborate with them.

In December, two top commissions that oversee state-owned companies’ investments pledged to “reasonably tolerate normal investment risks.” If a project failed to meet expectations, the people responsible could be exempted from punishment, the commissions said.

Officials have also suggested that party members can be given a second chance. An official in Sichuan Province who directed unauthorized funds toward a public toilet construction project was let off with just a warning, the local disciplinary committee there said, because he had not been seeking personal gain.

But local officials are unlikely to be convinced, because the overall trend toward tighter political controls is clear, said Dongshu Liu, a professor of Chinese politics at City University of Hong Kong. Even if Beijing is encouraging officials to be proactive now, the space for doing so is limited. “They want you to work hard, but they want you to work hard on following central orders,” Professor Liu said.

Indeed, speaking to the disciplinary commission last month, Mr. Xi doubled down on his calls for political purges, urging officials to “not give a single step” in cracking down on corruption and other bad behavior.

Even if Beijing can convince lower-level officials that it is politically safe to take risks again, those officials may have other reasons not to do so. Some local governments have reportedly been unable to pay their workers. The most low-level officials must also contend with growing workloads, often involving frequent in-person checks on residents and businesses, as Mr. Xi pushes for the state to increase its presence in daily life.

And yet, record numbers of young Chinese are still competing for civil service positions. That might seem surprising, given the pressures of the job. But the underlying reason may be the same as why the government is so eager to kick officials back into action: the weak economy. For all their downsides, civil service jobs are seen as stable.

“Yes, being a civil servant is not as good as it was 10 years ago,” Professor Liu said. “But other choices are even worse.”

Siyi Zhao contributed research.