Integration proceeds as Pix remains at center of U.S.-Brazil tariff dispute
UnionPay International and the Chinese Consulate General in Rio de Janeiro announced the pilot project, saying users of the UnionPay app and participating Chinese banks will be able to make payments by scanning QR codes at businesses connected to Pix. The Chinese Consulate General said the initiative will facilitate travel, trade and bilateral exchanges through “safer, faster and more convenient” payments.
During the initial phase announced this week, 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 integration of UnionPay and Pix is part of broader financial cooperation between the two governments. The People’s Bank of China and the Central Bank of Brazil signed a memorandum of understanding on strategic financial cooperation in May 2025, according to Brasil 247. In June 2026, 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.
The measure comes as Chinese tourism to Brazil continues to grow. Brazil welcomed 94,400 Chinese tourists between January and November 2025, a 34% increase from a year earlier, according to Embratur. The agency expects that flow to reach a record in 2026, officially designated as the “Brazil-China Year of Culture.”
Embratur 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.
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 dispute 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 found 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 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.
Pix currently has 176 million users and processes more than 7 billion transactions each month, according to Central Bank data. Meanwhile, transactions 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, according to Brasil 247, reflecting growing economic exchanges between the two countries.
The UnionPay-Pix pilot advances the Brazil-China financial cooperation trajectory that leaders agreed to accelerate in late July and follows the U.S. 25% tariff on Brazilian goods partly citing Pix imposed in July.