20 Million Young People Lie Flat Say No to Slave Labor China Panics and Issues Emergency Ban

Experts say young people should not lie flat. They should work hard and move up the social ladder. Move up? What nonsense? Can you really climb classes just by working hard? Those positions are inherited. You go out in luxury cars, stay in five-star hotels, and keep changing wives, yet you keep giving young people useless advice. Do I need your advice? If you were thrown into the countryside, could you even tell weeds from crops? Could you tell a mule from a horse? I suggest you share some of the money you took. If you won't, then shut the harmful mouth of yours. The vlogger's comment section quickly exploded. Many users wrote, That was spot on. Most power and wealth are inherited. The flashy lifestyle isn't for you, but the hard labor all falls on you. Ever since young people started lying flat, housing prices have dropped, luxury goods have come cheaper, and even attractive women are less out of reach. Bride prices are also starting to ease. When the lower class disappears, they will be forced to move down. Over time, they will become the lower class themselves. However, some users worry that trouble may be coming from the vlogger. China's Ministry of State Security claims that dark forces behind the scenes are driving the lying flat narrative, saying that overseas groups are heavily funding influencers to promote it. On April 28th, the Ministry of State Security posted on its official WeChat account that young people are the future of the country and a key target of ideological infiltration by hostile anti-China forces abroad. In recent years, these forces have used online platforms to amplify social anxiety, spreading negative ideas such as hard work is useless and effort only leads to loss. The article states that certain overseas groups fund anti-China media outlets and think tanks to push narratives like hard work equals exploitation and class rigidity means effort is pointless. These groups also support lying flat influencers and mass-produced short videos claiming that lying flat is justice and rejecting overwork means resisting exploitation. In what is described as a systemic effort to spread such thinking, by creating negative emotions, they turn personal struggles into group conflict, misleading young people and weakening the foundations of social values. The ministry's claims were quickly met with ridicule and doubt. A Weibo user with over 2 million followers known as Shi Yan posted that the authorities should name which influencers receive funding, how much they received, what messages they spread and what consequences followed. Only then, the user said, would it be convincing along with clear legal penalties. Another user Xiaobei commented, does this even need to be stirred up? A user named My Little Happiness added, so if I say work is too tiring and exploitative, I need a break. Will I be labeled as misled by foreign law forces? Lawyer Yang Chunxiang mocked the claim saying, of course, it's those foreign anti-China forces again. If you can't keep up, you lie flat. They won't do. Even if you can't keep up, you still have to keep pushing. As long as you're not dead from it, you keep going. Analysts point out that China's employment situation continues to worsen. At this moment, the authorities' sudden crackdown on lying flat rhetoric appears to be driven by alarming data. A research report circulating within political and economic circles show that as the number of graduates rises and job supply falls short, many young people are dropping out of the job market. Lying flat is shifting from an individual choice to a group of phenomenon. This trend has already sparked internal discussions and is seen as a signal that could affect the production system and social stability. According to people familiar with the report, it includes projections of labor market pressure over the next two years. The data shows that in 2026, China is expected to have 12.7 million college graduates. When combined with vocational school graduates, high school graduates, and those still unemployed from previous years, more than 20 million people may struggle to enter the formal job market. Internally, this period is described as a window of concentrated release with employment pressure expected to intensify in the second half of this year, along with a rise of collective lying flat behavior. A graduate surnamed Cai, who finished university in 2024, told reporters that he relies on his parents' retirement income and lives in a home they purchased for him. He said, After graduation, I borrowed 50,000 yuan from my family to start a company with a classmate, but we lost money. Then I borrowed another 100,000 yuan and still lost money. In total, I've lost 200,000 yuan. Since last year, I've sent out nearly 200 resumes and hardly anyone responded. Many classmates couldn't find jobs after graduating. Some earn just over 2,000 yuan a month and still have to work overtime every day. So I just stay at home, avoid buying clothes, and keep my spending as low as possible. A Douyin blogger said, I'm 35 years. With a master's degree, I suddenly realized that I may never find a job again in my life. I spend every day in the job market now, and everywhere I look, there are people searching for work. There are only a few companies hiring. Most jobs won't accept women over 30. The ones that don't have an age limit usually requires technical skills like forklift operation or repairing air conditioners and washing machines. She said she saw an office position offering 3,000 yuan a month with weekends off and social insurance and she felt quite happy about it. But when she spoke with HR in detail, she learned that she needed to own a car and had to drive more than 30 kilometers each day to transport company materials. That meant earning 3,000 yuan a month while paying over 1,000 yuan out of pocket for fuel. The vlogger said she just wanted a clerical job even if it paid only 3,000 yuan a month with weekends off and basic insurance. But even that kind of job is hard to find. It's really too difficult. The job market now is beyond explanation. So if you currently have a job with weekends off, stable pay and insurance, you should cherish it. Don't quit casually. The job market out there has become distorted to the point of being abnormal. A headhunter from a Shanghai recruiting firm, Ms. Zhao said in an interview that far fewer companies have asked them to recruit this year compared to last year. Hiring has clearly become more difficult than in the past two years. Job openings are decreasing while applicants are increasing. Many young people stopped looking after submitting resumes for a while without results. Among those without financial pressure, more and more are choosing to lie flat. A scholar said that China's economic situation is severe and employment pressures has risen sharply. The growing number of young people turning to live stream sales or chasing online traffic shows that society has entered a moment of no future. He said, I see many young people doing live stream videos online or using AI to create jokes and attract traffic. This is not what a normal society should look like. If the authorities do not consider young people's future, then young people will not be the so-called hope, but a force that could push against the system. The leaked document also mentions that the narrative of hard work changes fate is gradually losing its effect among some young people. When there is a gap between income expectations, social mobility and real opportunities, some choose to reduce their level of participation. This includes cutting consumption, delaying or avoiding marriage and childbirth and remaining outside of workforce for long periods. The internal material described this as a collective low participation state. A former insider believes that a large number of young people are currently in a state of neither employment nor study, which could have chain efforts on consumption, industrial operations and social expectations. He said, young people were once key participants in both consumption and production. If they all reduce their participation, it will weaken economic vitality and change how society functions. What the authorities fear most is that the situation will continue. In our community, local grid workers are going door to door, urging young people not to lie flat, but to work hard. The question is, where are they supposed to work hard? Are they being told to go back to the countryside? This is completely unreasonable. The report also notes that lying flat is different from traditional unemployment. Some people are not entirely unable to work, but after repeated failures in job hunting, they choose to withdraw from the competitive system, forming a kind of passive stability. This group is not fully reflected in official statistics, it continues to grow in reality. The circulation of this internal material has revealed another trend beyond official data. As more young people choose to reduce participation, employment issues are beginning to shake the system. As social pressure builds, tensions continue to spill over and extreme incidents, including acts of retaliation against society and random attacks, are occurring more frequently. Analysts say the authorities now face a dilemma with no clear solution. On one hand, they do not want young people to lie flat, especially fearing that the mindset will spread and become widely accepted. On the other hand, with the economy in serious decline and capital flowing out, the employment situation extremely difficult. Many highly educated and experienced older workers are losing their jobs, leaving even fewer opportunities for recent graduates. What remains are mostly low paying and demanding jobs for young people who have spent years studying and in many cases, exhausted family resources. The psychological gap is enormous. At a time of uncertainty about the future, choosing to lie flat in many cases are reluctant adjustment. In this context, the term lying flat has become a kind of mental symbol for many young people in recent years. On the Chinese internet, lying flat is also interpreted in slightly different ways. In generally refers to an attitude among young people that rather than striving to meet social expectations, they choose to lie flat and live without strong desires. This can include actions such as not buying a house, not buying a car, avoiding relationships, not getting married, not having children and maintaining low levels of consumption. This phenomenon is also seen as further contributing to weak consumer demand. Moreover, as the idea of lying flat spreads among young people, it has even become a symbolic form of resistance to the system. On shopping platforms, products such as T-shirts, mugs, phone cases and car stickers have appeared with slogans like lie flat and if you lie flat enough, you won't be harvested. This shift from a work attitude to broader dissatisfaction with government and the system is what the authorities find most sensitive. According to Mr. Xiao, a senior editor at Guangzhou Daiyu News and newly revised Public Security Administration punishment law introduced at the end of last year has begun to target online expressions such as lying flat and giving up, labelling them as negative. He revealed our banned words database is updated every day and already contains at least two to three hundred thousand entries. Terms that cannot appear in the media includes 89, the cultural revolution, mass incidents, as well as words related to organising gatherings, petition, democratisation and political legitimacy. Social media platforms ban even more terms including lying flat, run philosophy and giving up. Mr. Xiao said that negative speech has no clear legal definition. The banned word database is not built on fixed standards but expands based on the situation and policy needs. Once a term is added, it's never removed. So the list continues to grow. He added that there is no official public explanation of the scale and no one knows the final number. In addition, on December 26 last year, the Cyberspace Administration of China issued a notice in regulating the behaviour on online influencer accounts. It listed 13 negative items targeting accounts with large followings. The notice explicitly bans promotion of ideas such as lying flat, giving up, decadence and worship of wealth, as well as the intentional misuse of language or the creation of coded slang. It also prohibits taking statements out of context or interpreting major national policies in a confrontational way and collecting negative information under the pretext of rights and protection or reporting. This list quickly triggered strong backlash online. Some users said bluntly that even talking about lying flat or giving up is no longer allowed and that it has reached a point where anything short of praise is treated as having ulterior motives or even grounds for punishment. After news spread of the latest crackdown on lying flat speech, some online commentators quickly echoed the official line. They claimed that their narrative is backed by hidden forces funded by overseas organizations and promoted through various anti-China media and think tanks. In one video, the speaker said in a serious tone, what's even more ironic is that while they encourage us to lie flat, they themselves are rolling out economic bills, development programs and talent initiatives, even offering high salaries globally to attract talent. This shows they never believed in lying flat. They only want our young people to lie flat. So we give up our development opportunities and future. However, the comment section told a different story. One user wrote, people like this really lack basic reasoning. He just said they're offering high salaries to attract talent. If you paid high salaries or at least provided basic protections, there wouldn't be so many people lying flat. Another commented, I won't lie flat. Let me be appointed general manager of a major state or company. I'll sign performance contract with my life on the line and guarantee it turns profitable. Many others added, just to clarify, my decision to lie flat has nothing to do with any external forces. And if anyone lies flat and drains those so-called foreign funds, isn't that fine? Why are you so anxious? Or should we all become civil servants? Some users responded more bluntly. One said, like mosquito, it can't suck my blood. So it just buzzes in my ear. Another joked, I refuse to lie flat at 80. It's still time to work hard. Look at that vlogger. So many people criticize him, yet he keeps posting. I should learn from that. Faced with warnings and pressures from the authorities, many users remain unconvinced. One vlogger who offered a deep review of both social reality and the idea of lying flat received widespread support on social media. She said, once family planning is lifted, they expect a surge in birth. Once lockdowns end, they expect a surge in spending. Once purchase restrictions are removed, they expect a surge in home buying. They always assume we will respond with a rebound, but they underestimate our restraint and our poverty. Poverty keeps me from spending freely, but it also lets me keep a regular routine. Poverty keeps me from expensive food, but it helps me reduce the three highs and puts less strain on my body. Poverty has protected my liver, guarded my stomach, spared my back and saved my lungs. It has helped me avoid financial storms and scams and no one even asked me for money. It keeps me from comparing myself to others, keeps me grounded and helps me hold on to my integrity. Holding on that goodness is what keeps my life steady. User commented, as someone born in the 1980s, I don't even have the energy for any kind of rebound anymore. Once people truly wake up, what you'll see is a rebound of silence and if guns controls were lifted, that would be the real kind of rebound. In another video, a young woman spoke bluntly about what she sees as the nature of society. She said, A society begins to decline when good people can no longer make a living. A good person begins to change when they are no longer treated fairly. When good people are denied fairness while bad people are tolerated, good people lose confidence and bad people grow more arrogant. She added that she once believed that being reasonable would take you anywhere while being unreasonable would get you nowhere. But now she feels the opposite is true. Shameless people can go anywhere while honest people struggle at every step. Good deeds are handed poorly while wrongdoings is carried out without flaw. Those who do wrong act with confidence while those who do right end up hurt. So-called leaders speak of rules in public but rely on connections in private. They talk about justice while thinking about personal gain, appearing upright on the surface while engaging in questionable dealings behind the scene. She also said, If a woman sleeps with a leader, she gets promoted. If she sleeps with a school principal, she keeps her position. If she sleeps with a director, she becomes famous. If she sleeps with a boss, she gets a raise. But if she sleeps with a migrant worker, she gets arrested. Why? Because that's called prostitution. The ugliest part of the society is that it finds fault with powerless, kind people while it looks for virtues in those who are powerful, wealthy and lacks morality. The vlogger concluded that today's reality is driven by connections, interests, status and money while morality is left aside. Still, actions have consequences. Justice may not be immediate, but it will come. Good brings good in return and bad things bad. It is only a matter of time.