Chinese capital is moving into Latin America at scale — energy, mining, automotive, infrastructure, and increasingly crypto and fintech. Most of it lands in Brazil. Esquare Legal advises Chinese enterprises operating in Brazil and across the wider region, combining a qualified Chinese-lawyer-led China desk, an on-the-ground São Paulo presence, and Mandarin-language capability that almost no crypto-native firm in Latin America can match.
The China-Brazil Corridor Is the Story of the Decade
China is Brazil’s largest trading partner and one of its largest sources of foreign direct investment. The flows are no longer confined to soybeans and iron ore. Chinese firms are building and buying across Brazilian electricity transmission and generation, electric vehicles and automotive manufacturing, mining and critical minerals, ports and logistics, and a growing layer of technology, payments, and crypto infrastructure. For a Chinese company, Brazil is the gateway to a continental market of more than 400 million people.
It is also a market where almost nothing works the way it does in China. Brazilian corporate, tax, labour, foreign-exchange, and regulatory law is dense, formalistic, and unforgiving of foreign entrants who assume their home-market playbook will transfer. The companies that succeed are the ones that engage local counsel early and treat Brazilian compliance as a structural requirement rather than an afterthought.
The opportunity in Brazil is enormous. The legal and regulatory friction is just as large. The firms that win are the ones that respect both.
What the China Desk Does
Esquare Legal’s China desk is led by Donna Tang, a qualified Chinese lawyer and native Mandarin speaker who has advised Chinese state-owned and private enterprises on cross-border transactions, dispute resolution, and corporate structuring across Europe, Africa, North America, and Asia — including legal and tax work for the Chinese diplomatic mission in Pakistan. That combination — a China-qualified lawyer embedded in a firm with a physical Brazilian presence — is the core of what we offer.
Our work for Chinese clients in the region covers:
- Market entry and corporate structuring: establishing Brazilian entities, holding structures, and the cross-border architecture connecting them to Chinese and offshore parents.
- Foreign investment and exchange control: Central Bank of Brazil registration of foreign capital, profit repatriation, and the FX mechanics that determine whether money can actually move.
- Sector-specific regulatory work: energy, mining, automotive, and infrastructure each carry their own Brazilian regulatory regimes, licensing, and procurement rules.
- Crypto, fintech, and payments: for the new generation of Chinese technology and crypto companies, BCB VASP positioning, payments licensing, and tokenisation structuring under Brazilian law.
- Dispute resolution: Brazilian-seated and international arbitration for cross-border commercial disputes, coordinated in Mandarin and Portuguese.
The Manaus Principle
We operate on a clear internal rule we call the Manaus Principle: no Chinese company matter in Brazil is turned away. Where a matter falls outside our direct expertise or requires a specific Brazilian bar admission, we coordinate local specialist counsel and manage the relationship, rather than declining the work. For a Chinese client, that means a single Mandarin-speaking point of contact who owns the problem end to end — not a referral and a closed door.
Institutional Backing: The Tahota Relationship
Esquare Legal maintains an institutional co-branding relationship with Tahota Law Firm, one of the largest law firms in the world — a top-100 global practice with more than 4,000 practitioners across 30-plus offices. This relationship provides China-side institutional credibility, co-branded engagement on appropriate matters, and access to research and on-the-ground awareness within China.
We are precise about what this is and is not. Tahota provides institutional support, co-marketing, and China-side capability. Esquare Legal originates and runs its own client mandates independently. The value to a Chinese client is the combination: the institutional comfort of working alongside a major Chinese firm, delivered through a nimble, crypto-native, Brazil-present practice that can actually move at the speed a transaction requires.
Track Record
The firm’s China-Latin America work has been recognised at the institutional level. Our China-corridor practice has been featured in the China Business Law Journal in connection with major Chinese infrastructure investment — among the largest of its kind outside China — and our managing partner has addressed civil service and policy audiences on the interpretation and commercial implications of Chinese infrastructure contracts. This is not a desk built on translation alone; it is built on having done the work.
Why Esquare Legal for the China-Brazil Corridor
There are large international firms with China desks, and there are Brazilian firms with foreign-investment practices. Very few combine a China-qualified, Mandarin-native lead; a genuine physical presence in São Paulo; crypto and fintech regulatory depth; and institutional co-branding with a major Chinese firm — in one practice, at a scale that moves quickly and prices sensibly. For a Chinese enterprise entering Brazil, that combination is rare, and for Chinese crypto and technology companies specifically, it is close to unique.
From market entry and corporate structuring to crypto and fintech regulatory work, our Mandarin-language China desk can guide you through the Brazilian legal environment end to end. Speak to Esquare Legal →
This page is general information about Esquare Legal’s China desk and China-Brazil corridor practice and does not constitute legal advice. Brazilian corporate, tax, foreign-investment, and sector-specific regulation is complex and fact-dependent. Engage qualified counsel before acting. Esquare Legal operates across São Paulo · Dubai · Hong Kong.