China’s ‘Snail Awards’: Civil servants shamed for poor performance

Civil servants in several Chinese regions are facing growing work-related stress. Amid rising local government debt and struggles to pay salaries, their incomes are at risk, while pressure to attract investment intensifies. In this high-stakes environment, inefficiency — let alone the “lying flat” (躺平 tangping) attitude — has become increasingly unacceptable.

In the past six months, some regions have intensified efforts to combat the “lying flat” attitude among officials. Certain areas have gone so far as to publicly shame departments and individuals by presenting “Snail Awards,” “Ostrich Awards” and “Hedgehog Awards” for inaction, slow responses, and poor performance.

However, it remains to be seen if this controversial method can effectively transform humiliation into motivation and reverse the longstanding culture of inaction within officialdom.

In September 2024, the Mazhang District of Zhanjiang, Guangdong, took action against as many as eight officials for lying flat. A deputy director named Chen was reassigned due to his slow work pace and project delays. Similarly, a civil servant named Zhang from a district government agency was moved for avoiding challenging tasks and neglecting skill development. Others faced consequences for echoing empty slogans, disengagement, superficial work, and lacklustre learning — issues that have reignited public debate on bureaucratic inefficiency and inaction.

Many regions have introduced “Snail Awards” to shame inept officials. In late November 2024, Chinese state media People’s Daily Online reported that several regions have implemented effective measures against passive officials. For example, Taizhou in Jiangsu and Honghuagang district in Guizhou’s Zunyi have awarded Snail Awards, tying them to annual performance evaluations and rewards for specific units and individuals.

In late 2024, a short video from Sichuan’s official TV program, Yangguang Wenlian (阳光问廉), went viral on Chinese social media. It showed three expressionless men in suits receiving framed Ostrich, Hedgehog, and Snail Award certificates on stage during a special campaign in Chuanshan, Suining.

The three individuals were forced to take photos with their “awards”, stepping on stage to face public shaming once more. The public described the scene as being “forever chained to the pillar of historical shame”. Many netizens even remarked that “such programmes should be promoted nationwide”.

These individuals were from different units. The district’s Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement official received the Ostrich Award for passivity in urban management. The Housing and Urban-Rural Development official earned the Hedgehog Award for rejecting applications four times. Lastly, the Laochi town subdistrict official received the Snail Award for slow responses to public demands.

The news website dahe.cn, run by the CCP’s Henan Provincial Committee’s Propaganda Department, published a signed article in late 2024 discussing the Snail Awards. It criticised complacent officials who fake busyness and passive cadres lacking initiative, arguing such behaviour tarnishes the CCP’s image, undermines government credibility, and fuels public disdain.

The article praised the awards as a form of “positive punishment” to shame underperformers, targeting those with a “lying flat” attitude, slow-moving “snails” and departments that evade responsibilities. The initiative highlights the CCP’s commitment to strict party discipline and governance.

The Snail Award, first established in early 2016 in Taizhou, Jiangsu, targets officials for inaction, with penalties like performance bonus deductions. It aims to improve efficiency in promoting projects, fulfilling duties, and addressing public concerns. Lan Shaomin, then the Taizhou party secretary, intended it to encourage swift and effective task execution.

Taizhou’s Snail Award is announced quarterly. In the first two years after it was introduced, Taizhou gave the award to a total of 57 units and individuals; “snails” who failed to rectify issues not only lost face but could also risk losing their positions.

The People’s Daily Online reviewed past Snail Award announcements in Taizhou and found that for both units and individuals, the reasons for “winning” were quite specific, such as delays in subsidy distribution, failure to update work information promptly and inadequate rural toilet renovations.

The Snail Award was only adopted and emulated by other regions in 2018, such as Zhejiang’s Shengzhou and Jinyun county, and Guangdong’s Suixi county. The award even made it to the list of top ten anti-corruption buzzwords in the same year.

Nevertheless, the Snail Award is not perfect either. In July 2018, after being reviewed by the authorities, officials from Jiangsu’s Taixing, fearing they would be accused of inaction and given the Snail Award, demolished over 300 billboards along local highways within two months. The speed of the demolition led to accusations against the local government of illegal and forced dismantling. 

Lan, 61, the initiator of the Snail Awards, did not achieve significant career advancement from the initiative. After leaving Taizhou, he was promoted to the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and served as Suzhou’s party secretary. Following a stint in Guizhou, he became chairman of the Heilongjiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in January 2023 — a provincial-level role with limited decision-making power in local governance.

The prevalence of inaction and a “lying flat” mentality among Chinese officials could be one of the reasons for the wider adoption of the Snail Award. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection released a summary of violations of the eight-point regulation at the end of January this year. It found that in 2024, over 220,000 cadres were disciplined, among which more than 90,000 were penalised for irresponsibility, inaction, arbitrary action, and false action in fulfilling their duties and serving economic and social development — the most serious issue among the various problems identified.

Last year, over 310,000 were criticised and subjected to disciplinary action, with nearly 140,000 of them punished for the aforementioned reasons. 

A commentary published in The New York Times (NYT) on 20 February speculated that compared to the past, now is perhaps the time when the Chinese government cannot afford to have its officials slacking off. With economic growth slowing, the country needs to attract investors and inspire ordinary people, unleashing the dynamism that powered China’s rise.

Apart from giving out the Snail Award, various Chinese regions are also coming up with innovative approaches and establishing support and transformation mechanisms for officials who are “lying flat”, in an attempt to curb the trend of inaction.

Among them are the relatively moderate punitive measures implemented by Zhanjiang’s Mazhang district last November, which hold leading cadres accountable for laziness and establish a management database to track officials who are “lying flat”. They implemented dynamic management, promptly removing “reformed” officials from the database, offering them a chance to “stand up”. 

Notwithstanding, the NYT commentary quoted Liu Dongshu, a professor of Chinese politics at City University of Hong Kong, as analysing that local officials are unlikely to be convinced, because the overall trend toward tighter political controls is clear; even if the government is encouraging officials to be proactive now, the space for doing so is limited. In short, instead of saying that local cadres are slacking off, it is more accurate to say that most of them are afraid to act. This makes it challenging to mobilise the enthusiasm of local officials.

Hu Shuigen, a professor at Zhejiang University’s School of Public Affairs, argues that incentive and punishment mechanisms significantly shape officials’ behaviour. Recognition of achievements and the impact of innovation on existing interests influence their motivation. He recommends optimising performance evaluation systems and linking mobility or elimination mechanisms to performance levels.

Some grassroots cadres cite formalism as a key reason for the “lying flat” phenomenon, creating a sense of futility where effort seems unrewarded. They call for stronger incentives and fault tolerance to motivate active work and discourage passivity. Ju Hua, a professor at Peking University’s School of Government, also highlights formalism as a major burden on grassroots officials, increasing pressure and fostering disengagement. She suggests addressing “lying flat” by reducing formalism, easing workloads and improving evaluation and appointment mechanisms.

Observably, the reasons for inaction among Chinese civil servants are complex. They face burdens from repetitive, formalism-driven tasks while lacking external motivation. With low returns on effort and the risk of political missteps, many opt for caution over initiative.

Clearly, publicly shaming people with the Snail Award is not a long-term solution to fundamentally reverse the trend of “lying flat”. Instead, the authorities should consider how to motivate civil servants through positive incentives and also implement more incentive measures and a broader fault tolerance mechanism to better boost their morale.

This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as ““蜗牛奖”公开羞辱干部能扭转中国官场躺平之风？”.

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