Higher wages at Meituan + Reasons behind tech crackdown

A trend toward better working conditions in China sounds like a dream come true for trade unionists and trade politicians in the West. Yet it happens entirely in the own interest of the Chinese leadership; after all, a socialist country cannot remain antisocial forever. This is why Chinese authorities are forcing the food-delivery app Meituan to offer better conditions to its delivery drivers. However, this discussion is also familiar to us. Be it Uber, Lieferando, or Gorilla, the questions are the same: what kind of employment relationship do companies have with their delivery drivers in the first place? And aren’t these trendy platforms creating a new precariat?

Meanwhile, the latest action against Meituan is part of a broader offensive against tech companies. In China’s eyes, these companies have acquired too much power. Their market share in their segments is too big, they gained too much specialized knowledge and collected too much data. As a result, these companies are becoming serious competition for the CCP’s control over the country. And this is the one thing that cannot be tolerated. But even in this regard, there is a parallel to the USA and Europe, where parliaments and regulators are now starting to give its Internet giants a slap on the wrists. China is just taking more severe actions against billion-dollar companies.

Today, we also have two stories from the world of diplomats. One is set during the Mao era, the other in the present. Their common theme: animal metaphors. China’s new ambassador to Washington, Qin Gang, is considered a “Wolf Warrior in sheep’s clothing,” as Michael Radunski puts it. In contrast, his predecessors in the 1960s were made “sacrificial lambs” by Mao himself, as our columnist Johnny Erling tells us. So the situation has always been a serious one, while the occasional little scandal surrounding ambassadors provides for amusement in foreign policy, then as now.

Your
Finn Mayer-Kuckuk