"I understand the argument that wechat and alipay don't care about foreigners when it is a very small percentage of the market, but they still have a chance to pickup quite a lot of incremental revenue for very little cost if they can execute it."
It's the central government which has dictated the use of domestic bank accounts for name verification (with a possible exception, I'm not sure, for Hong Kong people). Point is, Alipay and Wechat aren't free to set up an alternative passport channel without government OK.
That’s the thing, Ali and Tencent may be “private” companies but they are certainly government controlled, especially when it comes to their payment systems. It’s a great way for the government to track spending.