U.S.-based human rights defenders in China recently issued a statement calling for the immediate release of labor activist Chen Guojiang, the leader of the WeChat group “Delivery Jiang Hu Riders Alliance. Chen was taken away by police on February 25 for his concern about the working conditions of delivery workers and for organizing and helping delivery riders to help each other and defend their rights. The Family has not received any detention notice and has not heard from him.
No charge, no detention letter
In a March 17 announcement, Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) said Chen Guojiang is believed to be detained in Beijing‘s Chaoyang District Detention Center. In an open letter, his father, Chen Wanhua, expressed concern about his son’s condition, saying he had not yet received the detention notice that was supposed to be issued within 24 hours, and that he was not sure what the charges were. Chen Guojiang’s sister called the Chaoyang police and was told that the detention notice had already been sent.
Human Rights Defenders in China urged the Chinese authorities to release Chen Guojiang immediately and unconditionally, and demanded that he be allowed to contact his family and meet with them or a lawyer appointed by his family while he is in detention.
The organization also demanded that the Chinese government ensure citizens’ freedom of association, expression and communication, as well as the right to organize to protect labor rights.
Self-created WeChat group defends delivery workers’ rights
The “Knights of the Delivery Lake Alliance” is a WeChat group and public number created by Chen Guojiang, who started working as a delivery worker several years ago. He has used the screen names Xiong Yan and Chen Tianhe. Chen Guojiang had previously worked in a variety of jobs and opened restaurants. In the course of his delivery, he found that a large number of delivery workers have a poor living environment, rights and interests are often not protected, so he created a mutual help as the main theme of the WeChat platform, in addition to recording the daily problems encountered, but also to provide support for the protection of rights, and received great attention. Over the past year, the platform has grown to at least 16 WeChat groups with more than 14,000 friends.
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. It is difficult to determine whether this incident is related to the arrest of Chen Guojiang.
As early as October 2019, Chen Guojiang was detained by police for 26 days for mobilizing takeaway workers to defend their rights by refusing to take orders.
According to online sources, Chen Guojiang had expressed concern in a WeChat group the day before his arrest, saying, “If I don’t speak tomorrow afternoon, it proves that I’m not okay, and if I can speak, I’m okay.”
At the same Time Chen Guojiang was arrested, a number of other delivery workers were also taken away or questioned. A few were later released. Subsequently, some delivery workers around the country prepared to stage a “March 8 strike” in solidarity, but were unable to do so due to various strong stabilization measures by the authorities. At the same time, the WeChat public number of “Work No. 51”, the micro-signal of the editor and the qq group of the anti-loss group, which called for solidarity with Chen Guojiang, were all blocked.
Netizens donate to support the rights of delivery groups
However, Chen Guojiang’s father, Chen Wanhua, issued a letter of help on March 15 in the WeChat public number of “Delivery Jiang Hu Knights Union”, saying that his family was poor and could not afford to hire a lawyer for Chen Guojiang, hoping that people who are concerned about the case of the arrest of the “master” will pay 50,000 lawyers’ fees for the first phase. The first stage of the case is to provide financial support.
After the letter was sent out, it was quickly forwarded by the Telegram channel of “Work No. 51”, and netizens were called upon to spread and donate through WeChat, Weibo, QQ, Zhihu, B Station and other platforms inside the wall.
Although the fundraising was quickly suppressed by various smears, restrictions and blocking, Chen Guojiang’s family sent out a message on the public WeChat number of “Delivery Jianghu Knights Alliance” on March 16 to finish fundraising and stop fundraising, in which Alipay received more than 55,000 yuan and WeChat received more than 68,000 yuan, and they have found a lawyer to make an appointment for a meeting on March 24. The meeting was held on March 24. Subsequently, the WeChat public number of “Delivery Jiang Hu Knights Union” was shut down.
The reporter tried to contact the delivery man through a social media group, and eventually a delivery man who was worried about his voice being collected by the police only agreed to the text. The delivery man said he believed that the “ally” Chen Guojiang had not broken any laws and was only fighting for the rights of the delivery community.
He said: “I am also shocked, all his activities are open, there is no illegal place. The web upload ally was arrested for exposing the ‘hungry’ deception of riders, and I think he did the right thing. ‘Hungry’ platform in the Spring Festival set the reward conditions too harsh, and there is a desire to deliberately deduct the benefits of the takeaway workers. As individual takeaway workers have absolutely no right to negotiate with the platform, either by the platform wanton exploitation and oppression, or their own solidarity to fight for their rights, can not count on others. For the sake of the riders’ interests to be protected, so I think it is just for the allies to reflect this matter to the media. But it also destroyed the bourgeoisie’s beautiful dream, so they arrested the organizers of such a rider alliance.”
Huddling up is anathema to the authorities
Some comments in the group said that the “master” was arrested not because he had made any mistakes, but because of his sense of justice, because Chen Guojiang, who has a righteous heart, already has some influence among the riders. This influence could be transformed into a motivation and bond for the riders to unite and fight. And that’s what the authorities are shying away from.
A guest commentary on the Rights Defense Network, signed by Pang Shouyi, said that after Chen Guojiang was taken away, once there was news about them or the strike on Weibo and public numbers, it was quickly deleted and blocked. This sign indicates that the huge number of delivery riders who organized to defend their rights has caused extreme uneasiness among the authorities. Chen Guojiang’s ordeal illustrates that the authorities want to clamp down on civil rights groups by arresting organizers in order to make an example of them.
An independent commentator who has long been concerned about the labor situation in China, and who is only willing to be interviewed in writing for fear of being recognized as a voice, also said that the authorities have always been afraid of labor forming organizations that would threaten the interests of employers and the stability of the regime. This is the same thinking as the crackdown on the Shenzhen Jiashi labor movement a few years ago.
He said, “In fact, the alliance owner was arrested this time not only because he had previously questioned ‘Hungry’ on behalf of riders about its reward program to cheat riders during the Chinese New Year and forced ‘Hungry’ to apologize, ‘Hungry ‘Hungry’ on the joint police retaliation against him, but also because he previously engaged in the riders of mutual aid organizations take-away riders Union has been the prototype of the take-away employees Union, and independent unions are not controlled by the Chinese Communist Party is the most afraid of the Communist Party, they want to capture the thief first, kill the chicken to the monkey see.”
The independent commentator said that most of the videos and things the “Delivery Knights Union” has posted and done are related to issues around delivery workers, with no political expression or intent. But he is still worried that the authorities will find an excuse to convict Chen Guojiang.
He said, “I think this time the CCP will probably use the pocket crime of provocation to convict the allies, but that’s obviously not legally defensible. After all, the owner of the alliance questioned ‘Hungry’ only exercised a citizen’s freedom of speech, and he questioned the issue even ‘Hungry’ itself admitted and apologized. The Chinese Communist Party convicted the alliance is to add to the crime.”
Takeaway industry struggles to defend rights Rider protests on the rise
In recent years, the take-out industry has rapidly risen in cities across China, especially during the New coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan, and many people have opted for take-out or delivery, especially when ordering Food on the platform is both economical and convenient. “Meituan” and “Hungry” are two of the best, and business is booming.
The anonymous deliveryman told the Voice of America that the job of a delivery rider is difficult, and the hardships are manifold. In addition to the frequent problems with benefits, delivery dispensing, missed orders, complaints, fines, deductions, impounded cars and car accidents, the delivery industry is not a glamorous job in the eyes of the average person. Most delivery workers often choose to deliver only when they have no other choice, earning hard-earned money.
According to figures from China Human Rights Defenders, there are between 7 and 10 million couriers and delivery workers of all kinds across China. With no way to form a union, they can only use online platforms to help each other spontaneously, one analysis said. And helping them build a more equitable labor relationship requires social attention.
According to the Hong Kong-based China Labor Newsletter, the number of rider strikes and protests included has risen in recent years, from 10 in 2017 to 45 in 2019, and there were 121 rider traffic accidents included in 2018, including 19 incidents in which riders were killed delivering food.
The newsletter said that in the 2020 Epidemic, as the takeaway industry became one of the few channels for a large number of underemployed workers to earn income, many takeaway workers were forced to endure a variety of unreasonable platform regulations and continued decline in wages, while only three collective actions. 2021 included two takeaway worker protests occurred in Shenzhen, Guangdong and Tongxiang, Zhejiang. Meituan riders in both locations went on strike on March 1 to protest declining delivery fees.
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