A political science graduate, he worked at il manifesto, where he was head of overseas editorial from 2014 to 2022. Today he works at Chora Media, where he is head of journalism podcasts and where he produces the weekly podcasts Altri Orienti [Other Easts] and Fuori da qui [Out of here].

Passionate about China, he lived there for eight years from 2006 to 2014, and now returns whenever he can. In 2008, he founded the press agency China Files in Shanghai, with the aim of creating a space for discourse on China and Asia from a Chinese and Asian perspective.

He debuted as a writer with Brand Tibet (DeriveApprodi, 2010), an essay on the Tibetan cause and how it is marketed in the West, co-written with Mauro Crocenzi. He wrote Red mirror. Il nostro futuro si scrive in Cina [Red mirror: Our future is being written in China] and La Cina nuova [The new China] (published with Laterza in 2020 and 2021 respectively). The latter is an essay examining the transformations and contradictions of contemporary China, a giant with an identity made up of contrasts, in which the past and present alternate constantly.

In 2023 he published Tecnocina. Storia della tecnologia cinese dal 1949 a oggi [Technochina. History of Chinese technology from 1949 to today] (Add Editore). In it, the reasons for which “a State presented for a large part of its history as ‘backwards’, could have developed such a radical propensity for technology, and how it could have achieved such major results”, are analysed. In 2024, Mondadori published his book 2100. Come sarà l’Asia, come saremo noi [2100. What Asia will be like, what we will be like]. It was a finalist in the 2025 Premio Strega for essay, and since January 2026 has also been available in the Oscar Mondadori series. His latest book publication is Lo specchio americano. Lo sguardo della Cina sugli Stati Uniti [The American mirror. China’s gaze on the United States] (Mondadori, 2026).

He speaks fluent English