Bilateral investment treaties (BITs) have proliferated, particularly in the last two decades. Among the large emerging markets, Brazil and China are the largest emerging countries in South America and Asia, respectively. Foreign investors have mostly perceived these two countries as the sought-after places with great potentialities and attractiveness. However, Brazil and China have adopted completely different strategies regarding BITs. The objective of this paper is to make an empirical and comparative study of the experiences of Brazil and China by answering the following questions: Why did the two large emerging economies adopt such different positions concerning BITs? Does the hostile approach or the proactive approach depend exclusively on economic and political factors? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the BITs? Do the practices of Brazil and China reflect the problems or the positive impacts of the existing BITs?