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Comment by xNeil | Hacker News Reader

WeChat isn't forced on the people by the CCP by any means.

Is it easy to live without it? Can you go about your business without it?

Is this because the CCP pushed it or because adoption is so wide and got there organically?

I think it can be both. The app becomes very popular, CCP analyzes it, sees that it is a very useful tool for surveillance, so they encourage it and promote its spread and give its execs special status.

Those are separate questions. Is Google forced on people by the US Govt?

Does the US Government use services with Google accounts to conduct official business?

You can fill out official government documents in WeChat.

You can fill out official government documents in WeChat is entirely different from the government endorsing it. The US government can use AWS without endorsing everyone buy from Amazon.

It's just "who doesn't have WeChat?" mindset and laziness to offer a different method of payment that makes it not easy to live without it.

I was in China in Sept 2019 (what good timing..) and without WeChat I did feel if people thought I was from some remote remote village. I saw an old lady who had a rickety old cart with coals and a big pot, inside the pot were warm corn she was selling, and on the cart was a QR code to pay her with WeChat/AliPay.

The CCP rules as much through soft power as through hard power (threat of being disappeared/jailed), WeChat is just another tool in their tool box. I don't think they are twisty mustache cartoon villains, but the CCP definitely are belligerent to anyone feeling personal liberty from the government beyond what they allow, and knowing you are always being watched is part of that.

I think the topic of conversation was how some businesses don't offer payment options beyond WeChat/AliPay.. maybe the CCP talked to these businesses? But it seems the more logical answer is the businesses thinking "Who the hell doesn't have WeChat?"

Try living in any major Chinese city without it. On top of that, pretty much every foreign competitor is functionally disabled.

Virtually all mobile payments in China are handled by WeChat/Tencent. That's not an accident.

Is it a big deal if foreign competitors aren't active in that market? I wouldn't expect a Chinese payment app to work with my US bank account any more than I would expect Huawei network equipment to be used to transmit domestic traffic.

The CCP is notorious for boosting domestic ventures, and strangling any foreign attempt to compete. And while I would agree that keeping strategic industries under domestic control is a good thing, social media and mobile payments are arguably not part of those.

There aren't any payment apps in the US from friendly countries either. I think payments are a strategic industry, or at least one where the public doesn't benefit from having a Visa or Paypal take a cut of everything. As publicly funded infrastructure like interbank transfers gain greater adoption, I can see European governments discouraging use of American processors (Visa, MC) unless absolutely necessary.

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