On the mainland, Xiong Yan, the organizer of the less-than-one-year-old delivery alliance, and several of his friends have been arrested by Beijing police, and the reasons for their arrest are still unknown. On the other hand, reports of his arrest have been removed from official reports over the past few days. Some labor activists believe that the arrest of the organizer is another example of the official crackdown on civil society groups, as the large number of take-out riders who have organized to defend their rights has caused anxiety.
Mr. Zhang, a left-wing labor activist, told this reporter on Monday (March 1) that Mr. Xiong Yan, the “leader” of the delivery rider alliance formed by more than 10 WeChat groups, and a number of his close friends have been arrested by Beijing police. There is no way to contact his Family to get more information.
Mr. Zhang said: Yesterday they gave me the news that three people were taken away, and they were taken away on Thursday night (Feb. 25). Then on Saturday (27th), another person was interviewed, also asking them about this. That person was interviewed and was released within 24 hours. However, last night there was information that more than a dozen people were taken away. It is possible to take away in the name of provocation and nuisance. The person who was interviewed, was questioned about the content, is the knight alliance “alliance” of his videos and so on. The company’s main goal is to provide a comprehensive range of products and services to the public.
A delivery rider who claimed to know about the Xiong Yan incident revealed that Xiong Yan had revealed last Wednesday that he might be in trouble and reminded everyone that if he hadn’t heard by the next afternoon, it meant he might have been in trouble.
He believes that the reason for Xiong Yan’s arrest may be related to the fact that he has led his peers to defend their rights several times and reported the industry platform “hungry” for alleged fraudulent rider bounties. He believes that these rights events have generated widespread attention, but also to make the official uneasy.
According to Xiong Yan’s microblog, his last microblog was posted last Wednesday (Feb. 24), and has not been updated since then.
In addition, reporters found that Xiong Yan had retweeted several media reports about him from late last year, but those reports have now been covered up as well.
Mr. Liu, a longtime follower of the labor movement, pointed out that take-out riders at the bottom of China’s social ladder are not only squeezed by the platform, but also by customers, making their work difficult and even humiliating. But when someone steps up to organize the industry, even if only loosely, it leads to official scorn and a swift move to crack down.
Mr. Liu said: as this type of worker of theirs, the first thing is that the problem they face is already quite serious. Relying on individual resistance, there is no way out. This is now a consensus. Although he is a self-proclaimed “ally”, he is able to put this idea into action. You are in Beijing, you have such a great ability to collude, his state, is the main reason why people (authorities) are more afraid. When you don’t have the power to pose a threat to them, they don’t care about you, but when you have this kind of influence and power, then the authorities definitely want to nip him in the bud.
In this regard, our reporter called the Beijing Chaoyang District Public Security Bureau, which is said to be the agency handling the case, but the agency refused to respond to the matter.
Xiong Yan, who is from Guizhou and is in his mid-30s, has been in Beijing for more than 10 years and organized a coalition of take-out riders late last year. There is no more information about him from the outside world.
Delivery riders, also known as delivery boys, are a means of earning a living for China’s lower class, with more than 6 million people in the workforce so far. But the job is highly dangerous, and workers are being squeezed by platforms and discriminated against by customers. According to information released three years ago by traffic police departments in Shanghai and Chengdu, on average, one takeaway rider is killed or injured in a car accident every two days. However, to date, it has been difficult for practitioners in the industry to successfully defend their rights once they have been injured.
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