US Journalist Gets 2 Years for Acting as Unregistered China Agent

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

Thomas Weir Pauken II, 51, pleaded guilty earlier this year and will not appeal, according to his defense lawyer, Charles Burnham. Along with the prison term, Pauken was sentenced to 36 months of supervised release, during which he is barred from traveling overseas. He was arrested in February.

Federal prosecutors said Pauken supported operations of China's Ministry of State Security (MSS), including recruiting individuals and gathering sensitive information from potential assets. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said in a statement that Pauken "betrayed his country for money."

Pauken moved to China in 2010 and worked as a journalist for several Chinese state-affiliated outlets, including broadcaster CCTV. Most recently, he served as an editor for Xinhua, China's official news agency, a role he held since 2024.

Court documents show that from at least 2019 until February 2026, Pauken acted at the direction of individuals he knew were tied to the Chinese government. One handler, identified only as "Cathy," allegedly told him that his reports were read by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Pauken received at least $100,000 for this work.

Beyond writing reports, Pauken was instructed to recruit people who could provide classified information. In one instance, he was directed to meet with an individual and provide them with encrypted communication tools and devices. When he returned to the US in January 2025, Pauken told federal agents he was "80 percent sure" a person seeking a job in the Trump administration would share classified data with China, though he advised against it.

His lawyer noted that Pauken has accepted responsibility and that the government acknowledged he never provided classified information to the Chinese.

Pauken, a Texas native, wrote under the alias Tom McGregor at his father's request. His father, a former chairman of the Texas Republican Party, wanted to distance himself from his son's work in China. Pauken also published two books under his real name, one on US-China relations and another on the city of Shenzhen.