China pledged on Monday to tighten oversight of its transport industry and warned that the country did not need ride-hailing firms which compromised on passenger safety, days after a Didi Chuxing passenger was raped and murdered by her driver.
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China pledged on Monday to tighten oversight of its transport industry and warned that the country did not need ride-hailing firms which compromised on passenger safety, days after a Didi Chuxing passenger was raped and murdered by her driver.
The killing of a 20-year-old passenger who rode in the Didi vehicle on Friday in the eastern city of Wenzhou is the second such incident since May, denting the image of the Beijing-based company, which is the world’s largest ride-hailing firm by number of rides and is expanding globally.
The latest attack triggered severe criticism of Didi on social media and prompted regulators to warn of industry-wide action.
“If a company is not compliant and self-disciplined, and takes its passengers’ lives as a game, the public will vote with their feet and the government will not just stand by,” the transport ministry said in a commentary on its website.
The National Development and Reform Commission said that various government departments would push to improve overall governance of operators and would expand the use of a fledgling social credit system across the transport sector.
Didi declined to comment on Monday. It has suspended its Hitch carpooling service and previously said that it felt deeply responsible and would complete by Sept. 1 a new compliance operation to be inspected by the ministries and the public.
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, who had used the Hitch service to book her trip. Her body was dumped over a guardrail and down a cliff, police said.
Didi said the suspect had no criminal record, had provided authentic documentation and passed a facial recognition test before starting work.
However, it also said it failed to act on a complaint made against the driver on Thursday by a passenger who alleged the driver took her to a remote place and followed her after she got out of the car.
