On 28 February, China Digital Times reported that a food delivery workers’ mutual aid network organiser (Xiong Yan, also known as Chen Ping) might have been taken into police custody in Beijing. On 1 March, an informant from within the Ele.me, the online platform from which Xiong Yan gets his delivery orders, confirmed that he and some other members of his network were indeed arrested. At the time of writing, Xiong Yan’s whereabouts and status remain unknown, and speculation abounds.
It appears that the Rider's League was basically acting like an independent union and independent unions have historically been opposed by Marxist-Leninist governments (Solidarity in the Polish People's Republic being one of the rare examples of an independent union within a ML state and its unfortunate outcome likely hasn't helped improve the reputation of independent union activity in the minds of many ML government officials. Cuba also discourages independent labor union activity). The ACFTU is the official party-affiliated union in China and is still undergoing a process of reform. It can still be pretty inefficient with only recently beginning to recruit large numbers of delivery workers and has secured only fairly minor gains so far for delivery workers, hence the presence of some independent labor organizing. Hopefully, this can get resolved effectively.
It appears that the Rider's League was basically acting like an independent union and independent unions have historically been opposed by Marxist-Leninist governments (Solidarity in the Polish People's Republic being one of the rare examples of an independent union within a ML state and its unfortunate outcome likely hasn't helped improve the reputation of independent union activity in the minds of many ML government officials. Cuba also discourages independent labor union activity). The ACFTU is the official party-affiliated union in China and is still undergoing a process of reform. It can still be pretty inefficient with only recently beginning to recruit large numbers of delivery workers and has secured only fairly minor gains so far for delivery workers, hence the presence of some independent labor organizing. Hopefully, this can get resolved effectively.