Political protest is not allowed, if that is what has you confused.
There is only one reason a local government under the CCP would fold - when suppressing the protest is not in the party’s best interest. It occurs only rarely and doesn’t mean the leopard has changed its spots.
In the taxi drivers’ case, assuming it was just as you described, it could be they were using their collective leverage by threatening to quit, or, more likely, there was concern the protest could inspire other groups of people to join, etc. Whatever it was, it does not change the fact that to the CCP, maintaining stability, i.e, suppressing any unrest and preventing its spread, is always the number one priority at a huge financial cost to them.
> “Political protest is not allowed, if that is what has you confused.”
All protests that manifest in China are necessarily non-political in nature, since any attempt to protest against the reign of the CCP is nipped in the bud and the suspects summarily and harshly dealt with, which is after all the point of their tight control on everything. Only people who are confused would even try to make the differentiation.
If you meant to further say that non-political protests are allowed, then the CCP’s reaction to the p2p protests is a direct and strong refutation of your point, and such behavior is par for the course for the CCP.