WeChat Lets Users Link Overseas Cards for Everyday Payments in China

What’s new: Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. has upgraded its service that allows users to link international cards to its payment platform Weixin Pay, in a bid to enable foreign visitors to “pay like a local,” the company said in a Thursday statement.

After entering the Chinese mainland, people from overseas can now link their credit or debit cards issued by Visa, Mastercard, JCB or Discover Global Network to Weixin Pay — which is embedded in Tencent’s ubiquitous WeChat app — to access tens of millions of merchants, the statement said. The merchants span sectors from dining, shopping, transport to hotel accommodation.