Tom

Beijing is the biggest threat to Brazil's sovereignty. It started with the lights. In January 2017, China's State Grid took control of CPFL Energia, one of Brazil's biggest power companies. By 2018 it had spent almost R$30 billion buying out the other owners. State Grid also runs about 10% of Brazil's high-voltage power lines, more than 16,000 km of them. In March 2026 it closed a deal worth about R$7 billion for one more, a 1,200 km line in Minas Gerais. China Three Gorges bought Duke Energy's ten Brazilian hydro plants in 2016 and became the biggest private power producer in the country. A year later, another state company, SPIC, paid R$7.18 billion for the São Simão dam, and it gets to run that dam until 2048. Out at sea, two Chinese state oil companies own 15% of the extra oil rights at Búzios, which pumped about 1.19 million barrels a day in September 2026 and is now Brazil's biggest oil field. On the coast, China Merchants bought 90% of TCP in 2017, the biggest container terminal in southern Brazil. On the farm, a company backed by China's CITIC paid US$1.1 billion for Dow's Brazilian corn seed business and walked away with 18.5% of the corn seed market. Underground, China's CMOC took over gold mines in Maranhão, Minas Gerais and Bahia in January 2026 for up to US$1.015 billion. On November 7th, CSN signed a deal to sell CSN Cimentos, Brazil's second biggest cement maker, to China's Huaxin for R$12.7 billion. MMG, controlled by state-owned China Minmetals, is still waiting on Europe to approve its US$500 million deal for Anglo American's Brazilian nickel. In 2025, Brazil pulled in more Chinese investment than any other country on Earth, US$6.1 billion. In April 2024, State Grid told Brazil's energy minister it wants to invest another R$200 billion. State Grid, Three Gorges, SPIC and CNOOC all report to one office in Beijing called SASAC, which picks their top bosses and signs off on their big deals. So the parent companies behind a large share of Brazil's power answer to a government no Brazilian ever voted for. Brazil's own government sold some of these assets at public auction, including São Simão and the Búzios oil rights. Brazil needs outside capital, and the safest money comes from many countries at once, so no single foreign government ever holds the switch.