That only makes sense. There are McDonald's in China, so they already need the capability. Why bother shutting it off outside China? There are Chinese tourists in most places.
The system is often more reliable than the staff. I bought a gift card from IKEA in China and wanted to see what would happen if I tried to use it in the US. It worked fine, in theory. But when I asked the American cashier how much was on my card, she happily reported to me that it was $100. (It wasn't; it was ¥100.) The receipt she gave me, though, correctly listed ¥100.
Was there some kind of mix up? Are they laundering their money using foreign currency? Or does US Ikea not understand the difference between Yen and Yuan?
Interestingly, many Chinese believe that the two currencies use different symbols, with one of them using one crossbar on the Y and the other using two.
I am not aware of any such distinction being drawn in reality, though.
The system is often more reliable than the staff. I bought a gift card from IKEA in China and wanted to see what would happen if I tried to use it in the US. It worked fine, in theory. But when I asked the American cashier how much was on my card, she happily reported to me that it was $100. (It wasn't; it was ¥100.) The receipt she gave me, though, correctly listed ¥100.