Sure, but this is my personal view, so of course take it with a grain of salt. Capitalism, and hence consumerism, is a relatively recent thing in China, dating

Sure, but this is my personal view, so of course take it with a grain of salt. Capitalism, and hence consumerism, is a relatively recent thing in China, dating only to the 80s. Therefore, the well-developed mechanism in the Western world that encourages and protects it are still lagging. One significant aspect of it is consumer protection. Chargebacks are almost unheard of in China. Fraud protection is pretty much nonexistent. The results are twofold. First, security is an utmost concern, which explains the PIN-and-signature requirement in POS. Second, free of the responsibilities, banks can offer a much more attractive interchange rate. Another aspect is credit is not as developed in China. Of course, culture plays a large part as well, as traditionally Chinese value saving over spending. Therefore, there aren't crazy cash back schemes that American banks offer (credit card points do exist, but nowhere as lucrative), and people don't lose anything by switching to mobile payment, which are basically prepaid cards. These two situations are of course rapidly changing. Younger generations are much more willing to take credit (and you hear horror stories of young girls using their naked pictures as collateral), and more and more company realize consumer protection can be used as a competitive advantage. But mobile payment took foothold before traditional card did, so looks like they are here to stay.