PayPal meets with PBOC to discuss China expansion plans

PayPal is engaging directly with the People’s Bank of China as it seeks to expand services in a country where Alipay and WeChat Pay command near-total dominance. The meeting signals PayPal’s intent to move beyond its current niche of facilitating cross-border transactions for Chinese merchants selling overseas. PayPal’s China playbook so far PayPal first cracked the door open in 2019 by acquiring a majority stake in GoPay, a small Chinese payments firm. That deal made PayPal the first foreign company to obtain an online payment license in the country. The licensed entity, now called Beibao Payment, serves as PayPal’s operational foothold. Through it, PayPal provides cross-border payment services for Chinese merchants looking to sell to international customers, supporting over 100 currencies across roughly 200 countries and regions. In June 2026, the PBOC formally approved Zhang Hong as the new CEO of PayPal’s Chinese subsidiary. In May 2026, PayPal struck a deal allowing US PayPal users to make payments at millions of Chinese merchants through WeChat Pay QR codes. The integration was positioned to coincide with the upcoming APEC 2026 event, when an influx of international visitors ...