Mike Valerio is an eight-time Emmy Award-winning CNN International Correspondent based in Beijing, where he chronicles the forces transforming China and the wider Asia-Pacific region.

Valerio’s reporting has taken him from humanoid robot labs and China’s most ambitious technology ventures to village football fields, underground music venues, and communities connected by extraordinary feats of infrastructure.

He has explored how artificial intelligence and robotics are moving from laboratories into everyday life, interviewed the engineers and entrepreneurs behind China’s rapidly evolving innovation economy, and traveled across the country in search of stories that reveal how sweeping change is experienced on a human scale.

Valerio has covered high-profile summits between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, while also examining the cultural currents shaping how China sees the world. His work has tracked the viral trends sweeping Chinese social media and what they reveal about China’s place in the global zeitgeist.

Before moving to Beijing, Valerio was based in Seoul, where he chronicled South Korea’s expanding global cultural influence, from the rise of K-pop to the Korean dramas captivating audiences worldwide. He also reported extensively from the Demilitarized Zone, covering relations with North Korea and life inside the isolated nation.

Valerio began his CNN career in Los Angeles, reporting on breaking news across the American West. Before joining CNN, he worked as a political and investigative reporter in Washington, D.C. His investigations led to the multi-year documentary series Fallen and Forgotten, examining efforts to recover the remains of American World War II service members still buried on the Pacific atoll of Tarawa.

Earlier in his career, Valerio served as chief researcher for the New York Times best-selling book Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff.

Valerio earned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from The George Washington University. He is fluent in French and is studying Mandarin, with commands of Korean, Italian, and Spanish.