Opinion | China is better off letting young people let off steam

It isn’t clear when the craze began but, by the beginning of this month, thousands of university students had joined in. Materialising like a flash mob, they got on hired bicycles and rode together through the night, from Zhengzhou to Kaifeng, some 50km away.

At first, the authorities were keen to cash in on the surging popularity of the city. They offered free admission to attractions, dispatched more traffic police and had volunteers handing out breakfast. But soon enough, the warm reception screeched to a halt, after the cyclists overwhelmed a multilane road between the two cities, leaving motor traffic in a virtual standstill on the sides.

The authorities cracked down on illegal bike parking in the city centre. Traffic police in Zhengzhou and Kaifeng cordoned off some lanes.

Official messaging took a sharp turn too. Suddenly, the mass night rides were no longer “a symbol of youthful energy and the joy of shared experiences”, as described by Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily. Instead, in a social media post titled “There is no need to ride in groups, youth is not just about late nights!”, the Kaifeng Public Security Bureau asked people to consider the possibility of emergency scenarios: what if a patient in Kaifeng needed help but the medical rescue team from Zhengzhou couldn’t use the road?

Naturally, the students drew a fair share of criticism. On social media, some users posted photos of bicycles piling up across the city. One post said the craze “must be stopped, otherwise it will trigger social chaos”.