Originally Posted by
hfly
Your understanding is totally incorrect. IIRC I personally first used a Visa (and an Amex for that matter) card in China in 1985, I last used both last month, and have used them regularly in between those times (I have also used MC many times, but not as far back as 1985, so cannot bookend 34 years as nicely). Chinese banks prefer to offer Union Pay, which most of them own a part of, sort of like how many banks in the US would offer Visa or MC (or Japanese banks offer JCB for that matter), that being said, some Chinese banks do in fact issue Visa and MC and have been doing so for a very long time............Union Pay only started taking off in 2005 or so. To mention it again though DISCOVER card is accepted absolutely everywhere that Union Pay is offered, even if the merchants are not aware of it!
I wouldn't say "totally" incorrect. Without taking the time to brush up on the details of the history/regulations, while it's true that Chinese banks have been able to offer Visa/Master cards for quite some time, the regulations for foreign issuers, and they couldn't get into the game at all until ~2007. That having been said, protectionism of banking/finance is hardly unique to China.