There’s an important card missing from your wallet…
Like many people around the world, you likely use a credit or debit card from Visa, MasterCard, or American Express. These are private companies. But ultimately, they have to do what the US government wants.
That means your ability to use these cards—or for your business to accept them—depends on the US government’s blessing. If it wants to sanction or blacklist you, it can easily pressure MasterCard (or whomever) to cut you off.
This gives Uncle Sam tremendous leverage to pressure people and businesses alike. It’s a political weapon. And the US is not shy about using it.
For example, the US government stopped Visa and MasterCard from processing donations for WikiLeaks. (Julian Assange has described these companies as “instruments of US foreign policy.”)
In 2014, the US government blocked seven Russian banks from American payment processors to pressure Russia over its stance on Ukraine. If you were a customer at one of those banks, your debit/credit card was likely cut off without warning.
At the time, Visa and MasterCard processed about 90% of Russia’s payment transactions. Additional US sanctions could have seriously disrupted the Russian economy.
Putin would not tolerate something like that. So Russia immediately switched much of its payment processing to China UnionPay.
You may be able to make a similar strategic move.
China’s Alternative to Visa and MasterCard
No matter where you are in the world, it’s very difficult to do business without access to the US financial system.
China UnionPay is part of Beijing’s answer to this problem.
It works just like Visa, MasterCard, or American Express, except it doesn’t depend on the US government’s good…