Should travelers use Alipay or Weixin Pay first?

Both sit under the same administrative regulation, so the choice is not about which is safer

Alipay and Weixin Pay are both non-bank payment institutions, and the same State Council regulation binds them to the same duties: reserve funds may not be misappropriated, fees must be marked, user information may not be sold, and disputes must be handled. Picking between them is a question of where they are accepted and which one your card works in — not a bet on which one is trustworthy.

Where in the source: 国务院令第768号 applies to non-bank payment institutions generally; the duties below are not operator-specific.

Your balance is not the operator's money to use

Article 27 defines the reserve as money received from users pending payment and forbids the institution from misappropriating, occupying, borrowing or pledging it. Article 29 requires it to be held at the People's Bank of China or a qualifying commercial bank, and bars any unit or individual from freezing or enforcing against that account except as law provides. That is the sourced reason a balance sitting in either wallet is not exposed to the operator's own business risk.

Where in the source: 第二十七条: 不得以任何形式挪用、占用、借用备付金; 第二十九条: 备付金存放在中国人民银行或者符合要求的商业银行，任何单位和个人不得申请冻结或者强制执行.

Neither may charge you a fee it did not display

Article 34 requires fee items and standards to be set reasonably, published, and clearly marked at the point of business — and states outright that no unmarked fee may be collected. So an unexpected charge is a thing to query against a rule, not a cost of doing business abroad.

Where in the source: 第三十四条: 明码标价，保障用户知情权和选择权，不得收取任何未予标明的费用.