Algorithms and lockdowns: how China's gig economy works
\u2018One Shanghai courier uses own 70,000 yuan to buy necessities for people\u2019, one Weibo hashtag trended last week. Instead of being seen as a damning indictment on what the state\u2019s strict lockdown has induced people to do, the courier was lauded as a community hero and the story promoted by the censored platform. These kuaidi xiaoge (\u2018delivery bros\u2019) are most likely gig economy workers. The industry was already an integral part to the Chinese urbanite\u2019s life before the pandemic, but Covid has consolidated that role, as low-paid and hardworking gig economy drivers literally became critical to the survival of millions.\n
\nThe Chinese gig economy is in many ways more advanced. The services are more extensive (grocery shopping and even designated drivers \u2013 a stranger to drive your car home on drinking nights \u2013 have been the norm for years) and the algorithms are more ruthless (closely monitoring and continuously shaving off delivery times. \u2018The pandemic really brought the plight of these workers into the mainstream consciousness for the first time\u2019, Viola Rothschild, my guest on this episode, tells me.\n
\nShe is a PhD candidate at Duke University, and one of the few people \u2013 academics and journalists alike \u2013 who have looked into the Chinese gig economy. I\u2019ve known Viola for years \u2013 we first met when we read for a masters in contemporary Chinese studies together.\n
\nOn the episode, we discuss what working conditions are like (she recommends this article), the interactions between the state and the private sector (the largest players in the field are Alibaba and Didi Chuxing, both companies that have been penalised by the Chinese government in recent years), and what the pandemic \u2013 and particularly the Shanghai lockdown \u2013 has done to workers. We discuss the government\u2019s efforts to improve working environments, but Viola tells me:\n
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\u2018What workers get through unionisation is really about what the state wants to give them, if their goals align with the state\u2019s at any given time in terms of pressuring these companies. This is especially thrown into clear relief when we see how the state treats workers who try to organise outside of this apparatus\u2019
\nBy that, Viola is referring to the kuaidi xiaoge who\u2019ve been arrested for organising their own unions \u2013 it\u2019s still deeply ironic that the most successful purportedly Marxist state in the world today is deeply suspicious of workers creating their own unions.\n
\nBut fundamentally, as I push back at Viola, the problem is not only the private companies or the communist state, but also the consumers who demand faster and cheaper services. In that, \u2018I think that the Chinese gig economy has a tonne in common with its American and British, and worldwide, counterparts\u2019, Viola says. I totally agree.\xa0