The Chinese Communist authorities have launched a “ban on motorcycles and restrictions on electric bikes” campaign in Guangdong Shenzhen and other areas since promoting the “new national standard” for electric bicycles in September last year. In Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei district, more than 100,000 electric bikes were confiscated overnight, with delivery drivers facing violent law enforcement and even being handcuffed. Analysts point out that in the absence of adequate road infrastructure and without alternatives for the public, the authorities’ “one-size-fits-all” approach to tough management not only severely impacts the livelihoods of the lower class but also accumulates societal resentment.
On Wednesday, April 15th, Shenzhen Real Estate Information Network published an article titled “Severe Enforcement in Shenzhen! Over 100,000 ‘Electric Chickens’ Cleared Overnight” The article mentioned that on March 20 this year, the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau issued the strictest ever “ban on electric bikes” plan.
According to the police notice, Shenzhen police have designated three levels of restricted areas and clearly stated that starting from April 1, electric bikes are banned all day on highways, main roads, tunnels without separate lanes for non-motor vehicles.
The report stated that on the day the new regulations officially took effect, over 100,000 electric bikes in the Huaqiangbei district were cleared overnight, with road controls implemented in sections, restrictions, fines, and impounding of vehicles all simultaneously enforced.
This crackdown can be traced back to September 1, 2025, when the Chinese Communist authorities implemented the mandatory new national standard for electric bicycles, the “Electric Bicycle Safety Technical Specification” (GB 17761-2024).
According to a CCTV news report, the new standard imposes stricter requirements on fire resistance, vehicle mass, Beidou positioning, and pedal devices. On December 1, 2025, the old national standard electric bicycles were completely banned from sale, with all vehicles for sale required to comply with the new standard, and the old certification certificates were simultaneously canceled.
Against this national policy backdrop, the Shenzhen authorities have been the first to push law enforcement measures to the extreme.
According to data from the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau’s Traffic Management Bureau, as of December 2025, there were over 6 million registered and licensed electric bicycles in Shenzhen. If unregistered vehicles are taken into account, the actual number is even higher. The density of electric bikes far exceeds that of motor vehicles. In other words, there are about 2754 electric bikes per square kilometer, or one for every three residents.
On April 9th, Longgang District held a mobilization meeting for a special rectification campaign, announcing the immediate implementation of “zero tolerance” enforcement against unlicensed vehicles, over-limit vehicles, and illegal parking, with the standard being “zero tolerance for on-road confiscations and blanket towing for static violations.”
On the first day of the new regulations, multiple law enforcement videos spread widely on a platform: traffic police blockading delivery drivers on a large scale, a driver being intercepted by law enforcement on a pedestrian overpass, with officers immediately stopping onlookers from recording video; another driver being handcuffed on the street for reasons unknown. On April 5th, a video showed a delivery driver holding onto his electric bike, but being forcefully dragged away by three traffic policemen while crying out and struggling.
On April 13th, in an open space in Shenzhen, thousands of impounded electric bikes were piled up like a mountain. Netizens commented: “Each bike is a seed of hatred.”
He said that Guangzhou and Shenzhen are very ruthless in their checks, fining hundreds of RMB for not wearing helmets, and additional fines for entering lanes, stating “they directly tell you what you can’t ride, what can’t be on the road, this restriction and that restriction, imposing speed limits on you.”
He pointed out that this reminds him of the mode of clearing out the “low-end population” in Beijing in the past: “The domestic economic environment is currently very poor. Are they also creating conditions to indirectly clear out the low-end population? I think this is a possibility.”
Lin Tao stated that the severe backwardness of infrastructure is the fundamental contradiction, saying, “Many roads in Guangzhou do not have non-motorized lanes, some roads are so narrow, mixed with sidewalks. With such a large population using electric bikes, the current available road capacity simply cannot meet the demand.”
He also mentioned the 15 km/h speed limit in Shanghai, saying “it’s not much faster than walking, which is more ridiculous. It’s a very simple logic, the roads are already insufficient, slowing down will only cause congestion, there is absolutely no logic in urban planning.”
He especially noted that strict controls are mainly concentrated in first-tier cities: “I haven’t seen any second or third-tier cities being this strict, only first-tier cities are.”
Ding Jianhua (pseudonym), who works in the delivery industry, described to Dajiyuan the dangerous scenes of violent law enforcement by Chinese traffic police: “At entrances all over the city, police, traffic police, and plainclothes officers are crazily apprehending these delivery drivers with electric bikes. They would stretch a rope, and when you come over, they would directly pull you down, then detain you, confiscate your electric bike, some even use batons or helmets to hit you, or kick you.”
He mentioned that this enforcement method “can easily cause life-threatening situations, really not caring about the life or death of the delivery drivers.”
Ding Jianhua also revealed the multiple predicaments faced by delivery drivers: platforms continuously reducing delivery fees, cutting the number of riders, “fleecing and exploiting deliverymen.” Combined with various fines and vehicle seizures, the grassroots workers have been squeezed from all sides, turning their hard-earned money into a risk of being confiscated at any time.
The “enforcement” storm is far from just affecting street riders. According to official media reports, during the “ban on motorcycles and restrictions on electric bikes” campaign in Shenzhen from March 21 to 31, a total of 17,975 electric vehicles were confiscated in 10 days, with 874 people detained, including 50 express delivery drivers who were administratively detained for using electric bikes for deliveries.
A Shenzhen express delivery manager informed mainland media that the campaign forced delivery drivers to get up before 5 am to rush to collect and deliver items, and completely stop working once the traffic police began their shifts. Yet, despite this, riders were still being confiscated while delivering with tricycles at 10 pm.
Public doubts have continued to ferment with the ongoing massive vehicle confiscations. Some netizens raised questions on social media: “The vehicles are produced by the manufacturers and sold by distributors, why are regular consumers bearing the brunt in the end?”
According to Shenzhen Real Estate Information Network, public data shows that in 2024, 81% of electric vehicle accidents in Shenzhen occurred in mixed traffic sections. This figure precisely illustrates that the lack of road planning is the root cause of the accidents.
In response to this sweeping crackdown on electric vehicles in Guangdong and Shenzhen, several scholars have publicly raised doubts.
Mainland economic scholar Wang Sixiang questioned in a Hong Kong media publication, “Shenzhen detains many people with ‘ban on motorcycles and restrictions on electric bikes,’ which law is this based on? Which law prohibits their operation? Why should it be banned?” He pointed out that public authority cannot arbitrarily take action for self-set goals, “This is an unreasonable suppression of an industry, a nationwide irrationality.”
Taiwanese Professor Lin, in an interview with Asia Weekly, stated that the government should not overlook the needs of the public while trying to create a “good-looking” city, saying, “Telling the grassroots people not to ride motorcycles is not a fundamental solution. If the government can build an improved public transportation system that makes everyone willing to take buses or subways to work, then maybe there would be some justification for banning motorcycles. But banning motorcycles without reaching that step deprives people of their transportation rights.”
Another Taiwanese Professor Chen compared the situation to Taiwan, bluntly saying, “In Taiwan, which mayor dares to ban motorcycles, his political life is over.”