[medell]

I just visited China and seeing it as 3rd lowest on the list makes sense. Everything is done by QR Code with AliPay or WeChat. Even the old man selling bamboo cane for less than a dollar takes it.

Some restaurants do not take cash, period - it adds a staff member. A few places like a massage parlour I even tried to offer cash instead, and they didn’t care which leads me to believe the fees are very low. Of course, it is China so there’s no privacy.

[rjdj377dhabsn]

How do people pay for drugs and other illicit services in China without cash? Does the government turn a blind eye to most of it?

[acheong08]

> Does the government turn a blind eye to most of it?

Sort of. It's difficult to track private transactions on WeChat between friends to actual goods being sold. From what I've seen, most illegal goods/services sold just have you add them as a "friend" and send the agreed upon amount. Somewhat informal but neither side tends to scam since the consequences of escalating (e.g. getting a WeChat account banned) essentially makes it impossible to live. I've also seen Taobao being used where they place an overpriced real product that you buy and the margin is what you pay for the illegal good.

I'm not sure if it's truly turning a blind eye or whether the scale is just too large for the government to do anything about it.