[swang75]

For an official guide on how to activate WeChat Pay without a China mobile number, what payment sources (primarily debit or credit cards issued by a mainland Chinese bank) are accepted, and what identity documents are accepted (including non-Chinese passports), you can go to WeChat's official Help Center site in English here:

https://help.wechat.com/cgi-bin/newreadtemplate?t=help_cente...

Perhaps the official docs offer a more clear explanation.

[reuven]

Perhaps, but the official docs (following your link) explicitly says: "At the current time, "Wallet" is only available to users registered in mainland China, Hong Kong, South Africa and Malaysia."

In other words, the official line is that I shouldn't be able to use WeChat payments.

The whole point of my blog post is that this official line is wrong.

[jandrese]

It's still kind of true since you basically need to either find a friend you trust to launder money for you, or use some sketchy online service with high fees to launder the money for you.

[LeifCarrotson]

You're using a pejorative term rather wildly...you can also "launder" USD cash into RMB cash at the airport with high fees.

[jandrese]

It's clearly going against the intent of the company, and possibly the Communist party, I don't think I'm completely out of line using the term.

[tantalor]

You are saying this is fraud?

[jandrese]

I'm saying you could find yourself in trouble with the local party officials yes.

Most individuals are going to fly under the radar I hope, but it's still a bit of a risk.