An American journalist who spent years working in China was sentenced Tuesday to two years in federal prison after admitting he acted as an agent of the Chinese government inside the United States, in a case that played out in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.
Thomas Weir Pauken II, 50, who worked in China from 2019 to 2026, pleaded guilty in June to acting as an agent of a foreign government within the United States. He was arrested by the FBI in February 2026 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel near Dulles Airport, a day before he was scheduled to fly back to China.
Prosecutors said that just days before his arrest, Pauken offered $10,000 to an unidentified Trump administration official — referred to in court documents as “Person 1” — in an attempt to get that person to use their security clearance to hand sensitive information to Chinese intelligence. Pauken had met the source at a political event in the summer of 2023. That person initially gave Pauken information to pass along to China but later stopped, and prosecutors say China’s Ministry of State Security directed Pauken to get the source talking again.
“Pauken exploited his U.S. citizenship and corresponding ability to travel to the U.S. without restriction in order to support Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) operations, recruiting, and gathering of sensitive information from potential assets,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “Pauken betrayed his country for money. The National Security Division is committed to holding accountable anyone who aids or abets Chinese espionage efforts.”
A career built in China
Pauken, whose father was a Vietnam veteran, a Reagan administration official, and chair of the Texas Republican Party in the mid-1990s, moved to China in 2010. His attorney told the court that Pauken relocated because “his life was a mess and he needed a clean slate.” He went on to build a career as a writer and videographer for Chinese media outlets, eventually working as an editor for the state-run Xinhua news agency.
Court filings say Pauken was recruited in 2017 by a woman identified only as “Cathy,” who told him she did research for a think tank before he learned she worked for Chinese military intelligence. Between 2019 and 2026, Cathy paid Pauken at least $100,000 for his work and covered his travel to the United States for meetings with potential intelligence targets. He also allegedly did intelligence work for two contacts who claimed to represent the Japanese government, whom he suspected were actually Chinese operatives, and produced reports on the Department of Justice’s technological resources for a group in Wuhan that he said intended to use the material for cyberattacks on the U.S. government.
Money, not ideology, prosecutors say
Both the prosecution and the defense agreed Pauken’s actions were driven by financial motives and personal insecurity rather than political conviction. Prosecutors noted he funneled his payments from Chinese intelligence into his wife’s bank account and was carrying burner phones, other electronics, and cash intended for bribing recruits at the time of his arrest.
“He did it because he got paid. He made a lot of money, and he did it for the money,” Justice Department prosecutor Eli Ross told the court at Pauken’s sentencing hearing in Alexandria.
Defense attorney Charles Burnham offered a different account, telling the court Pauken acted on a “misplaced and naive, but sincere belief” that his work might improve U.S.-China relations. “He was a pawn. He was manipulated,” Burnham said. “He wasn’t betraying America — he was preventing World War III.”
Addressing the judge himself, Pauken said: “I’m sorry. I obviously did wrong things. I’m not disputing the facts of what the prosecutor said. I do dispute the motive. I thought I was helping, but now I realize I could have caused more damage.”
Sentence and warning
The judge was unpersuaded that seven years of working as a Chinese agent could be explained away as an extended lapse in judgment. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Theophani K. Stamos of the Eastern District of Virginia said the case showed the seriousness of Pauken’s conduct.
“Thomas Pauken knowingly assisted a foreign adversary in actively subverting the government of the United States for his own financial gain,” Stamos said. “This was not an isolated act; Pauken continued his course of conduct to aid China for seven years. It is unconscionable that an American citizen would not only undermine the interests of the United States, but also facilitate others in doing so.”
FBI Counterintelligence and Espionage Division Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky said the case “illustrates the lengths to which the Chinese Communist Party will go to undermine our democratic institutions, and it also demonstrates the FBI’s resolve to defend the homeland from threats to our national security.”
Pauken was sentenced to two years in prison followed by 36 months of supervised release, during which he will not be permitted to travel overseas. Rozhavsky said he hoped the sentence would send a “clear warning” that “anyone operating as an agent of a foreign government against the U.S. will be found by the FBI and held accountable.”
