????上周，馬云提出要讓支付寶（Alipay）和蘋果支付（Apple Pay）在中國合作，不過當時他的這個提議顯得并不合理。

????支付寶是中國當下最熱門的在線支付系統，人們用它支付淘寶（Taobao）上的訂單，繳納物業費，購買電影票，還可在其他購物網站上消費。然而，支付寶的地位與擁有數萬個商家和刷卡網絡的Visa、萬事達（Mastercard）或中國銀聯（UnionPay）不盡相同。漫步在北京或者上海的街頭，你會發現銀聯的標志隨處可見——作為國有支付處理機構，銀聯在中國具有壟斷地位——而支付寶的標志卻寥寥無幾。

????與此同時，蘋果（Apple）的新產品——蘋果支付——更多的是一種實地體驗。你無需在結賬柜臺刷卡，而只需在與蘋果簽約的20萬家門店內，輕松按下iPhone的home鍵就能完成付款。是的，蘋果手機上的在線組件讓在線購物變得更方便了，但它的關鍵還是物理組件，而支付寶的特色則是在線支付。

????所以當馬云拋出橄欖枝時，我們并不清楚支付寶在中國能給蘋果帶來什么：它在國內沒有支付設施，盡管曾經有過——支付寶曾在一些商家的收銀臺前提供二維碼，顧客可以掃描二維碼來付款，而銀聯隨后表示，支付寶必須通過銀聯網絡才能完成支付處理。

????但馬云并不是輕率地開腔，這番話極有分量，即便你很難理解。就在馬云在眾目睽睽下與蒂姆?庫克的對話剛過去兩天，中國政府就宣布了將對支付政策做出巨大改變，馬云的合作設想隨之得到有利支持。

????上周三，由李克強總理領導的中國國務院宣布，中國將對Visa、萬事達和美國運通（American Express）等國外公司開放支付系統。一直處于弱勢地位的支付寶也有可能位列其中。十多年來，中國一直禁止這些公司發放自己的銀行卡，強迫他們使用銀聯網絡并繳納費用。在此期間，銀聯成長為一家羽翼豐滿的壟斷巨頭。

????支付寶在面對銀聯時遭遇了類似困境。去年8月，在銀聯表示支付寶的交易必須納入銀聯網絡后，支付寶突然宣布，由于“明顯的原因”，將關閉線下銷售點的服務——盡管數量非常有限。

????中國商業媒體財新（Caixin）當時引用了一個消息源的說法：“支付寶決定徹底退出線下支付領域，因為它不想受到銀聯的控制?！?/p>

????The idea of an Alipay and Apple Pay partnership in China —suggested by Jack Ma this week—didn’t make a lot of sense when he said it.

????Alipay is China’s most popular online payment system used for online purchases including Taobao orders, paying utility bills, movie tickets, and other shopping sites. It is not like Visa, Mastercard, or China’s own UnionPay, which have a network of tens of thousands of merchants and swipe stations. Walk around Beijing or Shanghai and you’ll see plenty of signs for UnionPay, the state-owned processor that enjoys a monopoly within China, and barely any for Alipay.

????Apple’s new Apple Pay, meanwhile, is a mostly physical experience. You forgo the hassle of swiping a credit card at the cash register for the ease of touching the iPhone’s home button at two hundred thousand locations that have signed on with Apple. Yes, it has an online component that makes online shopping easier, but its allure is the physical component, just as Alipay’s allure is online.

????So when Ma brought up a partnership, it wasn’t clear what Alipay could offer Apple in China: it doesn’t have payment installations across the country and even where it did—in some stores it previously setup QR codes at cash registers that customers scanned with Alipay—UnionPay told Alipay to route them through UnionPay’s network.

????But Jack Ma doesn’t choose his words lightly. What he says carry weight even if it is difficult to understand. Just two days after he spoke on a stage with Tim Cook in the audience, China’s government announced a massive change to the payments system that supported Ma’s idea of a partnership.

????Late Wednesday, China’s State Council, the Communist Party’s 35-member policy board led by Premier Li Keqiang, announced China would open its payment system to foreign companies like Visa, Mastercard, and American Express, which it had long discriminated against. It might have well have added Alipay, which has also been disadvantaged. China has blocked foreigners for more than a decade from issuing their own cards and forced them to use UnionPay’s network, handing over a cut of the fees. During that time, UnionPay grew into a full-blown monopoly.

????Alipay has similarly faced off against UnionPay. Last August, Alipay abruptly said it shut down its offline point-of-sales service—the limited physical locations it had—for “obvious reasons” after UnionPay said Alipay’s transactions must be integrated into its network. It was a bold power grab, but one with state support.

????“Alipay decided to quit offline payments altogether because it does not want to subject itself to UnionPay’s control,” China’s business magazine Caixin quoted a source saying at the time.