It’s getting easier for visitors to China to pay for things, thanks to tie ups between Visa, Mastercard and Alipay. That could have implications for data security.
A customer presents their Alipay QR code to pay for their purchases at supermarket in Shanghai. Credit: Imaginechina via AP Images
The widening divergence between China and the West in recent years is not just about politics and ideology. Even the technologies that make everyday life possible have moved apart.
For years, foreign visitors to China have been unable to use Western credit cards to pay in many restaurants and shops. That’s because Chinese vendors typically require customers to pay using mobile payment systems available only to those with a Chinese bank account.
With tourist numbers to China now in sharp decline, that situation is finally changing. In July, China’s largest mobile payments system Alipay announced partnerships with Visa and Mastercard which allow users to link foreign cards and bank accounts to Alipay’s electronic wallet.
The agreement has been long in the making. Mastercard and Visa first announced in 2019 that they would work with Chinese mobile payment systems to allow its customers to participate in the cashless economy. But the mobile payment systems did not allo
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