The biggest challenge however over the long-tern is the lack of acceptance of foreign cards by Chinese merchants. There are an estimated 20 million businesses in China, and of these, 414,000 accept credit cards, and of those, 150,000 accept foreign credit cards (Worthington, 2003). At the infrastructure level this fact illustrates how pervasive the sociological factors that limit debt continue to influence the Chinese culture specifically and the Asian culture overall. As with every Asian culture, there is tremendous pride in not losing "face" or stature in ones' community. As a result, cash is king in the more conservative cities and regions of the country. The generation of 25 to 40-year-olds will change this, however it may take a generation or more to significantly increase American Express credit card use in Asia and China as a result. References

Bayot, J (2004, March 30). American Express to Issue Cards in China. New York Times,

Retrieved June 8, 2009, from http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/30/business/american-express-to-issue-cards-in-china.html

Owen Brown. (2004, December 9). China Banks Add Credit Cards With Help From AmEx and...

Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), p. C.2.
David A Von Emloh, Emmanuel V Pitsilis, Jeffrey Wong. (2003). Credit cards come to China. The McKinsey Quarterly: Special Edition,20-23.

Angus Maddison, Harry X Wu. (2008). Measuring China's Economic Performance. World Economics, 9(2), 13.

Alexander Monro. (2006, November 18). China still lacks the banks a market economy requires. Sunday Business

Rein, Shuan (2009 February 9). China's Credit Card Market: Interview with Pascal Nouvellon, Cofidis. Seeking Alpha, Retrieved June 8, 2009, from http://seekingalpha.com/article/117997-china-s-credit-card-market-interview-with-pascal-nouvellon-cofidis

Kenneth Rogoff. (2004). The IMF's China Card. Foreign Policy,(142), 64-65.

Mike Willis, Stephen Worthington. (2006). Foreign Credit Cards in China To Adapt or Not to Adapt? Journal of Asia - Pacific Business, 7(3), 45-77.

Steve Worthington. (2005). Entering the market for financial services in transitional economies: A case study of credit cards in China. The International Journal of Bank Marketing, 23(4/5), 381-396.

Steve Worthington.…