Last March in Beijing an expat mother, Elaine, and her seven-year-old son Boden took an Uber ride that turned out to be more dramatic than the usual routine of dodgy local radio and small talk about smog with the driver.

"We got to the crossroads when all of a sudden a car used by unmarked policemen cut us off at the traffic light," Elaine told the Beijing Kids website. "We slammed on the brakes and another unmarked car came down the side of our vehicle."

As detailed on the website, two police officers emerged from one of the unmarked cars, argued with Elaine's driver, then dragged him out of his vehicle and onto the road. One of the officers then got into the car, sat by Elaine, and questioned her. "Uber? Uber? Uber?" they asked.

At first Elaine claimed that the driver was a friend of a friend, but the driver had already come clean to one of the officers. "OK, yes," Elaine said. "Uber".

Elaine told the website she was "freaked out" by the event, and became concerned when police insisted on rifling through her phone, seemingly to confirm that she was an Uber user. Looking back, though, she said the police acted in a professional way and that she had not received contact from them since the incident. She has, however, not used Uber since.

Her experience is illustrative of a crackdown on taxi hailing apps like Uber in China, in the absence of mooted new rules for the ride-hailing sector in the country. It is currently illegal for a private car, such as one driven by an Uber driver, to be used for a paid-for ride in China. Legalization is expected soon per new rules drafted last October.

This legal status issue is one of two main fronts Uber is fighting on in China, a country which Uber sees as a top priority for its global team. Perhaps its most challenging but, with a population of 1.3 billion, most potentially lucrative market.

The other front is a fiery uprising of traditional cab drivers who believe they are being unfairly squeezed by the recent flood of ride-hailing apps.

Can the company win both, or either?