Pilot of Cross-Border QR Payment Linkage Launched between China and Indonesia

BEIJING, Sept. 12, 2025 — On September 11, 2025, UnionPay International (UPI), in collaboration with its partners, announced the pilot launch of cross-border QR payment linkage between China and Indonesia under the guidance of the two central banks.

At the launch ceremony in Beijing a pilot transaction was demonstrated using an Indonesia mobile payment application. In Jakarta, whitelisted users successfully made transactions via the UnionPay App and the Alipay app by scanning QRIS, the unified QR standard in Indonesia. During this sandbox phase, selected users from China’s mainland can make QR payments with those two Chinese mobile payment apps at more than 40 million QRIS merchants in Indonesia. Meanwhile, pilot merchants in the UnionPay and Alipay networks in the Chinese mainland can accept QR payments from 22 mainstream Indonesian mobile payment apps.

The sandbox phase is limited to whitelisted participants and merchants. The cross-border QR payment linkage is expected to be fully operational within 2025 once the sandbox phase is completed.

The cross-border QR payment linkage is a key project implemented between China and Indonesia in a Government-to-Government (G2G) model and has progressed under the guidance of both central banks. In January 2025, UPI signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Indonesian Payment System Association (ASPI), Ant International, and the Bank of China (Hong Kong) Jakarta Branch. UPI also signed cooperation agreements with Indonesia’s four switch networks — Rintis, ALTO, Artajasa and Jalin — as well as with Ant International and Alipay to accelerate implementation.

Under the agreement between the two central banks, cross-border QR payments between China and Indonesia will be settled in their respective local currencies. This arrangement will improve the cross-border mobile payment experience for residents of both countries and help merchants broaden their customer base. The project also represents a step forward in UnionPay’s work to establish a new four-party model in collaboration with industry stakeholders, with UnionPay continuing to play a pivotal role across the industry chain.

So far, UnionPay has achieved or is pursuing cross-border QR payment linkage with payment networks in 19 countries and regions outside mainland China. Going forward, UnionPay will continue to scale up cross-border payment connectivity.