From what I can see, it is not saying that cash is not accepted, and although he could not get his card to work they did have a card reader (so use cards themselves). We already have bar codes here that our phones can read and charge our account - it is just an alternative to using cards (not instead of cards) - probably convenient.
The scary things are the linking of databases (which we did not permit until we modified security legislation, and which is not done automatically to the population as a whole)), and the "social values" databases that China is starting to collect on people. Run up too many and you are restricted in holiday travel, etc. I doubt if we will have it to the same degree in my lifetime, but I'm sure we will have things like automatic fines charged to our accounts.