A plan by mainland delivery riders to launch a nationwide strike on March 8 to save Xiong Yan, the arrested “alliance leader of delivery riders,” has been aborted due to strong official efforts to maintain stability and an information blackout. But the strike by the takeaway riders continues. Xiong Yan was taken away by Beijing police late last month for reasons unknown, and his current status is unknown.
Our correspondent received information Tuesday (9) that the March 8 nationwide rider strike launched by delivery riders in solidarity with the arrested organization’s founder, Xiong Yan, was aborted due to official pressure. According to the delivery customer service from Shenzhen, they received an urgent instruction from the intelligence center of the city’s Public Security Bureau that someone was trying to organize a general strike, and the Internet police monitored several WeChat groups convening across the country, which also included Shenzhen-based WeChat users, and the police asked the delivery platform to respond with specifics and countermeasures.
The news also shows that because riders are still idling in protest, no one is responding to orders sent by the delivery platform, and a large number of orders continue to be voided due to overtime in Beijing and other places. But the takeaway platforms, including the party involved “hungry”, continue to remain silent.
According to Hong Tao, a concerned labor activist, the officials believe that the strike has the involvement of foreign forces, so they have taken tougher measures to maintain stability, monitoring the WeChat and communication tools of all the takeaway groups, all messages have been cut off, and the takeaway platforms have been pressured to control the riders. Plus, it’s the stability period of the two sessions, so it’s even more difficult for the riders to protest.
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. During the two sessions is certainly not see the results.
Hong Tao also confirmed that the public number “Working 51”, run by left-wing labor activists, was permanently closed last Saturday (6) to prevent riders from launching a national strike, after they had been under pressure to release news about it.
Hong Tao said: “I know it was the left-wing young people who did it, and they have been concerned about the rights of migrant workers. The original number was blocked before the Spring Festival, and now a new number is being blocked again because of this fast-buying rider thing.
Our reporter tried to contact the labor activists who intervened in the strike, but the phone was unanswered.
Liu Shihui, a former human rights lawyer, pointed out that The prevention of the labor movement is one of the most serious tasks of the Chinese government, and under the information blockade and harsh suppression, the domestic labor movement is facing great difficulties.
Liu Shihui said: “In the current domestic environment, this is a predictable thing. Information cannot be conveyed. Labor NGOs have arrested and sentenced a lot of people in the past. So, it’s very difficult to get things going in this area, and it’s not easy to get things going.
Our reporter called the Beijing Chaoyang District Public Security Bureau, but the bureau still did not respond. So far, the outside world still does not know how many riders have been arrested in total this Time.
On the 25th of last month, Xiong Yan, the organizer of the riders’ union, was arrested by Beijing police for forming more than a dozen WeChat circles, contacting nearly 10,000 delivery riders and trying to hold a group to defend their rights, as well as arresting a number of active riders. The incident is seen as one of the cases of official crackdown on organized civil rights in China.
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