“China's Meituan vows improvements after delivery man kills supermarket worker”, 23 December 2019

China’s Meituan Dianping said… it will make improvements to its platform after one of its delivery men stabbed a supermarket staffer to death… prompting debate on social media over the pressures faced by such workers…

China has in recent years experienced a delivery boom powered by millions of couriers who are employed by companies such as Meituan Dianping and Alibaba’s Ele.me to deliver millions of packages and meal orders around the country.

While many customers laud such services for their speed and convenience, there has been a growing debate about the treatment of these deliverymen, who work under tight time pressures and lack medical insurance when traffic accidents happen.

Local police in Chinese city of Wuhan published details of the case… which involved a 32-year-old delivery man, surnamed Chen, who stabbed a supermarket employee.

Meituan said a quarrel broke out between Chen and the supermarket employee when he had gone to the store to pick up goods for delivery. The stabbed employee later died, local police said.

“After collaborating with the police investigating into our system, there was no complaining calls or bad reviews on the vendor or the delivery man,” Meituan said in a statement…

“We will shoulder the responsibility, search for the problems and spare no efforts to make improvements to the platform,” it added.

Comments on Weibo were mixed, with some users speculating what pressures might have driven the deliveryman to commit such a crime while others said there was no justification for such actions…