Regulators Get a Grip on Online Payment Reins

(Beijing) – Buying an iPhone through a shopping website such as Alibaba's Tmall is likely to get a lot more complicated in China, much to the satisfaction of security-minded government regulators.

Officials have drafted several proposed regulations covering online transactions that would affect consumer buying habits as well as companies that run hundreds of so-called third-party payment systems across the country, the largest of which include the Alipay system linked to e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and the Tenpay network run by social media kingpin Tencent Holdings.