Didi Chuxing boss Jean Liu says car-pooling controversy was bigger ‘blow’ than her own fight against cancer

Didi has removed about 306,000 drivers from its platform since August last year, or one in every 100 registered drivers

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Jean Liu Qing, president of Didi Chuxing, speaks at a briefing on safety in Beijing, July 2, 2019. Photo: Handout

Published: 6:00am, 28 Nov 2019Updated: 6:18am, 28 Nov 2019

Jean Liu Qing, president of China’s largest ride-hailing platform Didi Chuxing, said the murder of two female passengers last year and subsequent safety crisis at the company hit harder than her personal struggle with cancer three years earlier.

Liu recalled facing her battle with breast cancer in 2015 with “a little bit of anxiety, pity and fear”, but the experience was “personally far from the crushing blow from [the Hitch service] last year,” she said in a recent interview with Chinese tech media Huxiu.com. “Everyone has the feeling of guilt,” Liu added.

First launched in 2015, Hitch enabled private car owners on Didi’s platform to give passengers going in the same direction a ride for a fee. It was put on hold over safety concerns after two passengers were murdered.

In August last year, a Hitch driver was arrested by police and confessed to raping and killing a 20-year-old woman passenger in China’s eastern Zhejiang province. That tragedy came about three months after a 21-year-old flight attendant was raped and killed in central Henan province by a man using his father’s Didi account.

Didi has removed about 306,000 drivers from its platform since August last year, or one in every 100 registered drivers. Photo: Reuters

On Wednesday Didi verified the authenticity of the Huxiu.com interview.

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