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He Huifeng

Guangzhou delivery vehicle driver Zhang Liang watches on warily as more graduates, former factory workers and other jobseekers join him plying their trade on the roads.
“The streets are flooded with delivery drivers and payouts per order have plummeted,” Zhang said. “To make what we earned last year, we have to stay on the road longer and ride faster, leading to a sharp rise in traffic accidents among us.”
Official estimates put the nation’s flexible workforce at nearly 300 million, most of whom remain outside traditional employer-funded social security coverage. But as delivery riders like Zhang grow in numbers, Beijing has vowed to strengthen protection for gig workers by bringing them into the national social security framework.
China’s State Administration of Market Regulation released the draft revision of an e-commerce law on July 4 for public consultation until August 4. The draft raises the accountability level of e-commerce platforms for the safety, wages and basic social security of outsourced labour – including drivers.
But the move has also sparked pushback from the very people it aims to protect.
“What we want is higher per-order pay and more reasonable delivery times, so that we can work shorter hours and stay safer while on the job.”
Delivery driver Zhang Liang
“What we want is higher per-order pay and more reasonable delivery times, so that we can work shorter hours and stay safer while on the job,” Zhang said. The 34-year-old former manufacturing and sales worker began his job in 2020 and now works about 12 hours daily to make roughly 300 yuan (US$44) per day.
“If the e-commerce law reforms mainly mean that both platforms and drivers have to pay more into social security funds, it helps us the least,” he said.
Higher social security payments, a hallmark of the revisions, could eat into the cash income they rely on for daily living expenses, some drivers said.
“Right now, liquidity is our priority to survive,” Zhang said.
Delivery driver Wen Yonghua, 28, who came to Guangzhou after working in factories, said that he sent most of his earnings back home to support his wife, two children and elderly parents at their rural dwelling in southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

“If I had to pay at least 1,200 yuan a month for flexible employment social security in Guangzhou, it would derail my family’s finances,” said Wen, adding that he had not taken a day off in months unless bedridden with a high fever.
He was also unwilling to tie up cash in a non-refundable, long-term fund while struggling to meet his daily expenses. Before reaching the statutory retirement age, typically 60 for men, these non-refundable contributions remain locked in pension accounts and cannot be withdrawn.
Deng Jianping, a labour expert and senior lawyer at Guangdong Lawsons Law Office in Guangzhou, said the challenge was designing rules that could improve gig worker protections but without adding costs that many could not afford.
Social security contributions have become an increasingly heavy burden for many flexible workers because of China’s economic pressures, she said.
The expansion of gig work reflected a broader shift in China’s labour market, with companies facing uncertain demand becoming increasingly reliant on temporary workers instead of offering long-term employment, said Zhang Dandan, deputy dean of Peking University’s National School of Development.
“This ultra-low labour cost is precisely what fuels China’s export competitiveness,” she said in a July 21 video interview sponsored by Hexun.com, a Chinese investing portal.
Formal employment in major enterprises has contracted by 20 million to 30 million jobs in recent years, driving more than 10 million workers into the gig economy, Zhang said.


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With China’s flexible workforce estimated at nearly 300 million, Beijing pledges to strengthen their safety, wages and basic social security


With China’s flexible workforce estimated at nearly 300 million, Beijing pledges to strengthen their safety, wages and basic social security.


Stronger social security? Proposed law sparks a pushback by gig workers

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}With China’s flexible workforce estimated at nearly 300 million, Beijing pledges to strengthen their safety, wages and basic social security

With China’s flexible workforce estimated at nearly 300 million, Beijing pledges to strengthen their safety, wages and basic social security