An express mail delivery company based in Beijing, Rufengda Express Corporation, has suddenly shut down its business operations.
Hundreds of the company’s employees, suppliers, and logistics partners from different regions in China rushed to Beijing in an attempt to recover unpaid wages and other financial compensation, which they claim total more than 70 million yuan ($10.4 million).
Rufengda operates in more than 3,000 cities in 31 provinces and provincial-level regions, according to the company’s website.
But Rufengda had been losing money for the past few years as larger companies eclipsed the competition, a person familiar with the firm’s finances told Caixin, a Chinese business publication.
Tech giants JD.com and Alibaba both have their own courier services, often popular choices among Chinese online shoppers.
Protests
Protesters surrounded the company’s headquarters building in Beijing for several days in a row. Riot police arrived on the evening of April 4 to disperse the crowd.
One of the protesters told the Chinese-language Epoch Times in an interview: “The company stopped paying salaries since March 16. We went to the Beijing headquarters to defend our rights. At the beginning, there were about 400 people who stayed here for quite some time, but to no avail. The cost of food and accommodation in Beijing is very costly, so many people went back home.”
Another protester said there were more than 400 riot police, against roughly 200 protesters. The police also forbade them from recording video footage. “Whoever tried to shoot video would have his cell phone grabbed away by the police, so protesters didn’t dare to shoot videos anymore,” he said.
It was said that protesters found the company’s new CEO Ying Hang inside the building and surrounded him. In the end, police chased away all the protesters.
A female Rufengda staff who said she worked at the headquarters said her employer owed her two months’ salary, or nearly 10,000 yuan ($1,489). “It [company shutdown] happened all of a sudden. The company stopped all business operations on March 12, but did not give any explanation,” she told the Chinese-language Epoch Times. “Moreover, none of the company managers came out to do anything about it. The new shareholders have never made any public appearance. We have never seen them at all.”
Some media have reported that the company owed employees a total of 30 million yuan ($4.5 million) in wages.
