In 1900, he was appointed as secretary general of the provisional government in Tientsin, China during the Boxer Rebellion, and then from 1902 to 1905 he served as the chief foreign adviser to the Viceroy of Zhili, Yuan Shikai.
On the banks of the Pei-ho River, it was located approximately eight miles northwest of Tientsin, China.
After he retired from basketball team, he worked in Tientsin Textile manufacturing factory as a Machinist fitter.
Together with Edgar Snow, they evacuated to Tientsin (Tianjin) with Zhou Enlai's wife Deng Yingchao disguised as Snow's household servant before finding their way back to Xian.
In China he served with the 4th and 12th Marine Regiments at Shanghai, Taku, Hsin Ho, Tientsin, and Peking.
He was French consul in China (1895–1909), including consul in Shanghai (June 1895), and vice-consul in Fuzhou (October 1900), consul in Tianjin (Tientsin) (1906–1909), in Prague (December 1909), Frankfurt am Main (October 1911), Hamburg (October 1913), ministre plénipotentiaire in Rio de Janeiro (1916), Copenhagen (1920), ambassador in Tokyo (1922–1928), Washington, D.C. (1928–1933) and Brussels (1933–1936).
The first offices were in Beijing, Kalgan, Tientsin, and Urga (in Mongolia), all in areas near to Russian-controlled territory.
Pelosi was educated at the Italian Naval Academy in Livorno and before the war served on the battleship Caio Duilio, cruisers and destroyers as well as in the Italian marines in Tientsin.
After the capture of Tientsin on 23 August 1860, Bowlby accompanied Admiral Sir James Hope and four others to Tungchow to arrange the preliminaries of peace.