The passage from the twentieth to the twenty first century marked a new era in the economic and trade relations between China and African Portuguese speaking countries (PALOP). Driven by China's approach, on the one hand, to Africa through the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and, on the other hand, to the Portuguese-speaking countries (PLP), through the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries (Macau Forum), in the last 10 years trade between China and the PALOP has been developed within a framework of exponential growth. However, from the legal point of view, the two levels in which the economic and trade relations between China and the PALOP can be evaluated make the study a difficult task. In this thesis, we explore the legal dimension of the plurilateral relations between China and the PALOP, trying to identify the legal regime that supports them, as well as their nature. From the study, the author concludes that, essentially developed under Declarations and Plans of Action adopted at the Ministerial Conferences of FOCAC and the Macau Forum, relations between China and the PALOP have been developed within the framework of the so-called ‘soft law’ and despite positive economic and trade results, they still need a more efficient and consistent legal framework. It is in this perspective that the author suggests the creation of a free trade area, which would set an harmonized legal framework to support the economic and trade relations between China and the PALOP. This free trade area and its harmonized legal regime would clarify the issue concerning the nature, since this is still not clear in the current context where at least two conceptions emerge, namely the one conceiving them as relations of cooperation and another that conceives them as aid or assistance relations.