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.

近来，中国政府工作人员有很多烦恼。资金紧张的地方政府在工资支付上捉襟见肘。以国家安全为名的政治控制正在收紧。长达数年的反腐清洗没有结束的迹象。

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.

现在，工作人员还必须确保自己不会被授予“蜗牛奖”——越来越多的地方推出了这一称号，以羞辱表现最差的工作者。

“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.”

“通过暗讽式‘激励’，让获得者红脸出汗，提神醒脑，”一个中共下属网站上的评论写道，并指出，这些人只是在“混日子”，损害了党和政府的信誉。

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.

比起以往，现在或许是中国政府最不能容忍官员懈怠的时候。随着经济增长放缓，中国需要领导人推出新项目，吸引投资者，激励普通民众——从本质上讲，就是释放推动中国崛起的活力。

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.

但许多官员似乎没有动力，甚至完全不敢采取行动。在中国强硬领导人习近平治下，国家打击了从互联网公司、家教公司到金融等各个领域。现在已经无法猜测接下来会发生什么。任何偏离中央政府的政策都可能被视为政治上的不忠。

中国领导人习近平希望政府在人民日常生活中发挥更大作用，这往往会进一步加重本已不堪重负的公务员的负担。

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.

尽管官员们曾经竞相争取华而不实的基础设施项目，但最近，官员却因未经授权筹集资金或推进建设项目而受到惩罚。最安全的办法似乎是什么都不做。

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.

但现在不行了。据中共官方喉舌媒体《人民日报》报道，经过一系列要求官员更努力的呼吁，至少有三个城市开始颁发“蜗牛奖”。中国社交媒体上的一段来自四川省官方电视节目视频的剪辑显示，几名穿着西装、面无表情的男子接过装裱好的证书。

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.

这是比较温和的惩罚之一。广东省一个城区表示，他们建立了一个数据库，用来追踪那些“躺平”的官员。“躺平”是中国俗语，意思是消极怠工。还有的地方还宣传了自己对员工进行岗位调整或解雇的处理。

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.

中共内部的反腐败机构中央纪律检查委员会上个月表示，它在2024年处罚了13.8万名官员，原因包括“不担当”“不作为”和“假作为”。这一数字是前一年的两倍多，也是迄今为止受处罚人数最多的类别。第二常见的违法行为是不当赠送或收受礼物，受罚的人数只有上一项的一半。

“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.

“动真碰硬处理‘躺平式干部’，其实也是保护干事创业者的积极性和主动性，”该反贪机构在前不久的一篇文章中写道。

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.

当然，试图吓唬已经受到惊吓的官员采取行动，这可能不会成功。因此，中央政府也试图采取一种更加安抚的语气。周一，习近平会见了该国的一些顶级企业家，许多观察人士认为这是重新接纳私营部门的信号。这可能会促使地方政府更愿意与它们合作。

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.

去年12月，监督国有企业投资的两个最高委员会承诺“合理确定风险容忍度”。它们表示，如果项目未能达到预期，责任人可以免于处罚。

习近平在宣传海报上呼吁公民对国家充满信心。 随着习近平扩大了党对社会的控制，官员们要应对繁重的工作，包括必须经常考察居民的状况。

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.

官员们还建议，可以给党员第二次机会。四川省一名官员将未经授权的资金用于公共厕所建设项目，当地纪委称，由于他没有谋取私利，因此仅受到警告处分。

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.

但香港城市大学中国政治学教授刘东舒说，地方官员不太可能被说服，因为收紧政治控制的总体趋势很明显。即使中国政府现在鼓励官员积极主动，但这样做的空间也很有限。“他们希望你努力工作，但他们希望你努力服从中央命令，”刘东舒说。

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.

实际上，在上个月对纪委的讲话中，习近平强调了对政治清洗的呼吁，敦促官员在打击腐败和其他不良行为方面“半步不退让”。

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.

即使北京能够说服下级官员相信，再次冒险在政治上是安全的，这些官员也可能有其他理由不这样做。据报道，一些地方政府已经无力支付工人工资。随着习近平推动加强国家在人们日常生活中的作用，最低级别的官员还必须应对日益增加的工作量，经常需要亲自考察居民和企业的状况。

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.

然而，仍有创纪录数量的中国年轻人在竞争公务员职位。考虑到这份工作的压力之大，这似乎令人惊讶。但潜在的原因可能与政府如此急于让官员们重新行动起来的原因是一样的：疲弱的经济。尽管公务员职位有种种缺点，但被视为稳定的工作。

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

“是的，当公务员不如十年前好，”刘东舒说。“但其他选择更糟糕。”