Indonesia and China have launched a cross-border QR payment linkage connecting QRIS and China's payment ecosystems via Alipay+ and UnionPay International.
Under the linkage, users of Alipay and the UnionPay App can pay at more than 40 million QRIS-accepting merchants across Indonesia. In the opposite direction, QRIS-supported e-wallets and bank applications can scan over 80 million Alipay and UnionPay QR codes within China. The majority of participating Indonesian merchants are MSMEs, which account for more than 99% of all businesses in the country.
Merchant access and tourism flows
According to the official press release, for Indonesian merchants, the linkage requires no new hardware or additional integration: an existing QRIS code is sufficient to accept payments from Chinese visitors. The timing is also notable, since in 2025, Chinese arrivals to Indonesia reached a six-year high, with more than 1.34 million visitors recorded.
The initiative is structured to support local currency settlement in cross-border transactions, with the stated aims of improving exchange rate visibility, simplifying travel payments, and supporting more efficient tourism and trade flows between the two countries.
Cross-border QRIS transactions processed via Alipay showed positive growth during the pilot phase, though no specific volume figures were disclosed.
Regional interoperability context
The China–Indonesia linkage is a government-to-government initiative that builds on a broader regional effort to expand interoperable, real-time payment connectivity. It extends QRIS's existing cross-border reach, which has been progressively broadened across ASEAN member states and beyond.
Alipay+ functions as a unified wallet gateway and, according to Ant International, currently connects 50 international e-wallets and bank applications to over 150 million merchants. The platform includes connections to more than ten national payment schemes across Asia.
The structure of this linkage reflects a model increasingly adopted across the region: national QR schemes remain intact, while a technical intermediary enables cross-scheme interoperability without requiring merchants or consumers to adopt new infrastructure. Michael Guo, Alipay+ General Manager for SEA, South Asia, and ANZ, Ant International, described interoperability as 'the foundation of the next generation of cross-border payments', noting that the platform is designed to allow local businesses to participate in the digital economy at a global scale.
As merchant adoption grows and additional wallet connections are established, the initiative is expected to support broader digital payment usage and financial inclusion across the Indonesia–China corridor and the wider region.
