It’s the CIA’s fault

From Sinocism – a translation of a Ministry of State Security WeChat post accusing foreign forces of spreading the ‘lie flat’ dropout culture among young Chinese people…

In recent years, foreign anti-China hostile forces have leveraged online platforms to deliberately amplify social anxieties, distort interpretations of development problems, and continuously play up negative concepts such as “effort is useless” and “those who strive lose out.” They attempt to manufacture negative emotions in order to elevate individual hardships into group antagonism, leading young people to be misled and swept along without realizing it, thereby dissolving the conviction to strive among Chinese youth and even shaking the value foundations of society. 

It gets weirder…

What makes this all the more ironic is that while inciting us to “lie flat,” they themselves are working off their feet. In recent years, the countries in question have rolled out a series of economic bills, revitalization projects, and talent programs, even poaching global talent at high salaries. Clearly, they have never accepted “lying flat” themselves; they only want our youth to lie flat, so that they can hand over our development dividends, our strategic opportunities, and the future of our nation on a platter. 

Youth unemployment in China hit 16.9% last month. (It’s probably higher: after the number went over 21% in 2023, Beijing stopped reporting figures and then came up with a new method of calculating the rate, which was lower.) Some 200 million Chinese work in the gig economy – such as food delivery. Recent reports also suggest rising homelessness among the young, and factory closures. In the background, a burst property bubble and a declining population.