Tencent said on Wednesday that United States users of PayPal will be able to pay at tens of millions of Weixin Pay merchants across China by scanning QR codes, marking one of the most extensive integrations yet between China's mobile payment ecosystem and foreign digital wallets.

The integration between Tencent's cross-border platform TenPay and US fintech firm PayPal marks one of the first large-scale international applications of China's unified cross-border QR code gateway system.

Under the partnership, US PayPal users visiting China will be able to pay directly at Weixin Pay merchants nationwide using familiar PayPal wallet accounts, without opening Chinese bank accounts. The service will initially launch for US PayPal users before expanding to other markets in phases, Tencent said.

The partnership will run through China's unified cross-border QR code gateway — a payment infrastructure system designed to standardize links between domestic and overseas wallets.

Otto Williams, senior vice-president of PayPal and regional head for PayPal World's Middle East and Africa, said: "China is home to one of the world's most sophisticated digital payment ecosystems, and for international travelers, the ability to pay seamlessly is integral to the experience of being here. Through PayPal World's partnership with TenPay Global, we are committed to ensuring international visitors can enjoy seamless payments using a wallet they already know and trust."

Tencent said the launch is part of a broader inbound payment service enhancement initiative built around product upgrades, overseas wallet integration and multilingual services ahead of the upcoming APEC.

Daniel Hong, vice-president of Tencent's fintech group, announced a series of measures including a 90-day waiver of the 3 percent international card transaction fee for first-time users linking overseas bank cards, covering daily spending of up to 1,000 yuan ($139).

Tencent also said Weixin Pay's in-app payment guidance has been expanded into 16 languages including English, Korean, Thai, Russian, Spanish and Arabic, while multilingual offline service desks have been established at Shenzhen, Guangdong province, airports, border checkpoints, hotels and major commercial districts.

Tencent said overseas transactions through Weixin Pay rose nearly 80 percent year-on-year between January and April.

Dong Ximiao, chief economist at Merchants Union Consumer Finance and deputy director of the Shanghai Institution for Finance and Development, described the coordination of the two major payment platforms' services as a landmark moment for China's cross-border payments infrastructure.

"The launch of Weixin Pay support for PayPal users in China, beginning with US users, is a symbolic event in the interconnection of China's cross-border payment systems," Dong said.

He said the unified cross-border QR code gateway, which launched trial operations in July 2025 under guidance from China's central bank and other authorities, solved a longstanding fragmentation problem in China's digital payments sector.

Previously, overseas wallets and Chinese payment systems had to negotiate and connect individually, resulting in high technical costs and inconsistent standards, Dong said.

"The PayPal integration marks a substantive shift from simple interconnection toward actual interoperability in China's cross-border payment infrastructure," he added.

chengyu@chinadaily.com.cn