China’s mammoth effort to help foreigners spend, spend, spend

Whether taking a taxi, shopping, visiting tourist attractions, or even buying a cup of coffee, in some cases, the only way to pay is via QR code scanning.BEIJING - On a visit to Beijing last June, Cecilia Skingsley joined her colleagues for dinner at a restaurant in the financial district on the west side of the city near the headquarters of the central bank.

The problem has become more prominent since the pandemic, which accelerated the divergence in payment methods between China — which went down the path of QR codes — and the rest of the world, which, by and large, adopted near-field communication technology, which allows contactless payment, or tap to pay.

In recent years, the two platforms have made upgrades that allow users to link overseas cards issued by global payment companies such as Visa, MasterCard, and JCB to their apps, giving them access to tens of millions of local merchants. International users now can spend up to 3,500 yuan via Alipay without going through the full identity verification process, sources close to the platform told Caixin.

But the government wants banks and payment platforms to do more to help overseas visitors. The State Council, China’s cabinet, released a directive on March 7, urging them to streamline registration processes, and make sure there’s a choice of payment methods in areas that draw large foreign footfall.International visitor arrivals collapsed during Covid and have failed to recover to pre-pandemic levels since China reopened its borders.

Multiple sources with global card networks told Caixin that signing up new merchants to accept foreign card payments requires investment for Visa and MasterCard and if they don’t process many transactions, it’s not cost-effective.

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