American Journalist Sentenced to 2 Years for Acting as Chinese Agent

An American journalist has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for acting as an agent of the Chinese government inside the United States, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Thomas Weir Pauken II, 51, pleaded guilty earlier this year and does not plan to appeal, according to his defense lawyer, Charles Burnham. He was also sentenced to 36 months of supervised release with no overseas travel permitted. Pauken was arrested in February.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said Pauken "betrayed his country for money" by supporting "Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) operations, recruiting, and gathering of sensitive information from potential assets."

Pauken worked as a journalist for Chinese news organizations after moving to China in 2010, including state broadcaster CCTV, and most recently served as an editor for Xinhua, China's state news agency, since 2024.

His lawyer said Pauken "has accepted responsibility and respects the court's sentence," adding that prosecutors agreed in court that he "did not provide any classified information to the Chinese."

According to court documents, Pauken worked from at least 2019 until his February 2026 arrest at the direction of Chinese government contacts, including a person identified as "Cathy," whom he met in 2017. Cathy told him his reports were read by Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to an FBI affidavit. Pauken received at least $100,000 for the work.

Beyond writing reports, Pauken was asked to recruit people to provide classified information, including one instance in which he gave a Samsung phone, a computer and messaging app passwords to a contact identified as "Person 1."

Pauken told investigators he was "80 percent sure" a person seeking a job in the Trump administration would pass classified information to China, though he said he advised against it.

Pauken, a Texas native, wrote under the alias Tom McGregor at his father's request; his father, who shares his name, was a former chairman of the Texas Republican Party and once ran for governor. The younger Pauken also published two books under his real name about U.S.-China relations and the city of Shenzhen.