“China’s central bank, UnionPay bank-card service and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. are standing up to Apple Inc.’s effort to bring the Apple Pay no-card-no-cash payment system to iPhone users in China,” Li Xiaoxiao reports for Caixin Online.
“‘Apple is seeking to cooperate with Chinese financial institutions’ including banks for the use of Apple Pay, a People’s Bank of China (PBOC) official said,” Li Xiaoxiao reports. “At the same time, the American company has not yet ‘acknowledged regulators,’ and as a result, ‘it’s unclear whether the product meets the government’s requirements’ for a commercial operation.”
“Apple is also struggling with its relationship with UnionPay, China’s state-owned credit- and debit-card system operator,” Li Xiaoxiao reports. “Sources close to the companies said that talks aimed at an agreement that would open China to Apple Pay have stalled.”
Read more in the full article here.
There’s a surprise.
Are they supposed to “acknowledge” regulators in cash? Didn’t Mercedes Benz get in trouble for that recently?
No enough grease was applied to the wheels of progress.
Not bribing the right PLA General I guess.
Just like in the US, Apple keeps stirring well-established and resistant hornets’ nests that stand to lose ground – and as always, Apple will keep patiently prodding, probing, withdrawing and advancing while Apple Pay’s momentum keeps building to a point where resistance becomes futile.
Kind of like Mao’s famous philosophy for guerrilla warfare success: “The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue.”
And in the end, Apple will fold and give China what it wants. Just like they gave them access to their source code.