China clamping down on transport sector after Didi passenger's murder
The latest grisly episode triggered an outpouring of criticism on social media, with more than 5,000 comments as of Monday morning on the Twitter-like Weibo service reacting to Didi’s official apology post
China pledged to tighten oversight of its transportation sector, days after a Didi Chuxing passenger was raped and murdered by her driver, sparking social media outrage and forcing the firm to suspend its carpool service.
The killing of a 20-year-old passenger in the eastern city of Wenzhou is the second such incident since May, denting the image of Didi, which is the world’s largest ride-hailing firm by number of rides and is expanding globally.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement on Monday that various government departments will push to improve overall governance of operators and will expand the use of the country’s fledgling social credit system across the transport sector.
China’s police and transport ministry said on Sunday Didi Chuxing had “unshirkable responsibility” for what happened to the passenger after she got into a Didi carpooling service vehicle on Friday.
Didi said on Sunday it will suspend its Hitch carpooling service from Aug. 27 due to “disappointing mistakes” while the company re-evaluated the product’s business model, and said it had removed two executives from their positions. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the NDRC statement.
Police said a 27-year-old driver named Zhong was detained at about 4 a.m. on Saturday and confessed to raping and killing the passenger.