Brazil and China have launched a pilot program that will allow Chinese tourists and consumers to pay with the UnionPay app at Brazilian businesses that accept Pix. Photo courtesy of Pix
Aug. 6 (UPI) — Brazil and China have launched a pilot program that will allow Chinese tourists and consumers to pay with the UnionPay app at Brazilian businesses that accept Pix.
The initiative expands financial cooperation between the two countries as Brazil’s payment system remains part of the backdrop of the trade dispute between Brazil and the United States.
UnionPay International and the Chinese Consulate General in Rio de Janeiro announced the project and said users of the UnionPay app and participating Chinese banks will be able to make payments by scanning QR codes at businesses connected to Pix.
According to the consulate, the initiative will facilitate travel, trade and bilateral exchanges through “safer, faster and more convenient” payments.
During this initial phase, announced Tuesday, Chinese users can use their regular app to pay directly in Brazil. In a later phase, the service will gradually expand to other digital wallets associated with UnionPay, the People’s Daily reported.
The measure also comes as Chinese tourism to Brazil continues to grow.
The country welcomed 94,400 Chinese tourists between January and November 2025, a 34% increase from a year earlier, according to the Brazilian Agency for International Tourism Promotion, or Embratur. That established China as one of Brazil’s tourism markets with the greatest growth potential.
Embratur expects that flow to reach a record in 2026, officially designated as the “Brazil-China Year of Culture.” The agency attributed the trend to its strategy of strengthening Brazil’s presence in Asia.
Its president, Marcelo Freixo, described China as “a key market with enormous expansion potential, as it is the world’s largest source of outbound tourists,” according to El Diario del Viaje.
The integration of UnionPay and Pix is part of broader financial cooperation between the two governments. According to Brasil 247, the People’s Bank of China and the Central Bank of Brazil signed a memorandum of understanding on strategic financial cooperation in May 2025.
In June this year, the two institutions held another meeting of their working group to examine mechanisms that facilitate payments and financial transactions linked to trade between the countries.
Experts cited by the People’s Daily said the connection between UnionPay and Pix could make it easier for Chinese tourists to shop in Brazil and serve as a model for expanding this type of payment to other Latin American countries.
Pix’s international expansion also comes as the system remains at the center of the commercial debate between Brazil and the United States.
An investigation conducted by Washington under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 concluded that Pix’s regulatory framework gave preferential treatment to the system operated by the Central Bank of Brazil over other electronic payment companies.
The investigation contedned that the Central Bank acts as both the market regulator and the operator of Pix and questioned the requirement that financial institutions prominently display the system in their apps without charging users any fees.
The United States said those conditions affect U.S. payment companies, such as Visa and Mastercard.
The investigation was one of the factors later considered by Washington when it announced additional tariffs on Brazilian products, according to BBC News.
Brazil rejected those conclusions. The government said Pix is a public infrastructure designed to increase competition and expand financial inclusion, while the Brazilian Federation of Banks said the system reduces payment costs and encourages innovation.
Launched by the Central Bank of Brazil in 2020, Pix currently has 176 million users and processes more than 7 billion transactions each month, according to Central Bank data.
Meanwhile, Brasil 247 reported that transactions made in Brazil during the first half of 2026 using UnionPay cards issued in China increased by more than 30% compared with the same period a year earlier, reflecting growing economic exchanges between the two countries.