Authorities across China are cracking down on thousands of college students who took part in mass night-cycling events that commentators said could be seen as a new form of protest against the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
The police department in Henan’s Zhengzhou city issued a warning to students on Nov. 9, following a mass “night ride to Kaifeng” by thousands of young people a day earlier, as a social media video about riding to the city in search of dumplings spawned dozens of copycat outings, eventually expanding to a mass cycle ride that some observers said left the authorities rattled, concerned that it could turn into a political protest like the “white paper” movement two years ago, or Halloween in Shanghai.
Edit: these events are widely reported by diverse news sources:
BBC | CNN | ABC (Australia) | Sky News
They are indeed a weird cult, but is the problem (as specifically relates to the above comment) that they are weird (more than weird hah) or that they challenged the party? Imo addressing that is what the original comment was about.
They challenge the party the same way Heaven’s Gate, the Laroushites, or other weird right-wing cults challenge the US state; by encouraging destructive behavior like denying life-saving medicine to children, running a pyramid scheme, doing a bunch of crimes, financial and otherwise.