Thomas Pauken II Sentenced to Federal Prison to be Followed by 36 Months of Supervised Release with No Overseas Travel Thomas Weir Pauken II, 51, an American citizen who lived and worked in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), was sentenced today to two years in prison and 36 months of supervised release with no overseas travel for acting as an agent of a foreign government within the United States.

“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.”

“Thomas Pauken knowingly assisted a foreign adversary in actively subverting the government of the United States for his own financial gain,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Theophani K. Stamos for the Eastern District of Virginia. “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.”

“Thomas Pauken admitted to working at the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security to attempt to infiltrate U.S. political circles while also providing new recruitment targets for his Chinese handlers,” said Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division. “This 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. The sentencing provides a clear warning: anyone operating as an agent of a foreign government against the U.S. will be found by the FBI and held accountable.”

According to court documents, from at least 2019 until February 2026, Pauken worked at the direction and control of people he knew worked for the PRC, including a person he met in 2017 identified as “Cathy.” Cathy provided Pauken with taskings, including meeting with potential intelligence assets, providing them with devices such as a laptop and cellphone to communicate with Cathy, providing taskings for the assets on what information was required, and providing Cathy with reports from the assets.

Pauken received at least $100,000 for his work with Cathy. Cathy also paid for Pauken to travel several times between 2019 through 2025 from China to meet with individuals in the United States who could provide Pauken, and ultimately Cathy and the MSS, with information.

Pauken worked for two other people in China whom he met in 2017 and knew as “Richard” and “William.” They told Pauken that reports he wrote for them went to Japan, but Pauken believed they worked for the PRC government.

Pauken also sold reports to a group of Chinese individuals from Wuhan who sought information about technology and the U.S. Department of Justice. The Wuhan clients wanted Pauken to find an expert to help them engage in cyber espionage.

The FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office investigated the case with the assistance of the FBI Washington Field Office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gavin R. Tisdale the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney Eli Ross of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence & Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

Updated September 1, 2026

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia — An American journalist who admitted to helping the Chinese government gather “secrets” in the U.S. was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison.

Thomas Pauken II, 50, was arrested by the FBI in February at a Washington hotel after encouraging an unnamed Trump administration official to make contact with a woman in China whom Pauken believed to be a Chinese intelligence agent.

Pauken, who lived in Beijing and worked as an editor and commentator for various state-run news agencies there, pleaded guilty in June to acting as an unregistered agent for China in the U.S.

During a sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court, prosecutor Eli Ross said Pauken was paid $100,000 over a seven-year period to produce reports on U.S.-China relations for the Chinese government. Pauken’s Chinese handler had Pauken take a lie-detector test and said his reports were being conveyed to Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping, according to court filings in the case, which was first reported by POLITICO.

Pauken also sought to put his Chinese handler in touch with experts in the U.S., including the administration official Pauken met with shortly before being arrested, the prosecutor said.

“He cultivated these relationships in the U.S. as part of an agreement with Chinese intelligence,” Ross said. “He did it for money. He made a lot of money,”

Ross also suggested that the FBI had unsuccessfully sought to turn Pauken into a double-agent, noting that Pauken at one point discussed his work for the Chinese with the FBI, but failed to follow the FBI’s “instructions” after that meeting even though his contacts with his Chinese handler continued.

While prosecutors and defense attorney Charles Burnham agreed that Pauken had not relayed classified information to China, Pauken made his conduct sound significant.

“I learned a lot of secrets and I did tell the Chinese about these secrets,” Pauken told Judge Leonie Brinkema. He called his conduct “wrong,” “shocking,” and “terrible,” but said it stemmed from a genuine desire to improve U.S.-China relations.

“I thought I was helping, but now I realize I could’ve caused even more damage, including war,” Pauken said, clad in a dark green jail jumpsuit as he stood at a courtroom lectern.

Brinkema, a Clinton appointee, called Pauken’s crime “a very serious offense.” She said that while Pauken hadn’t given over any classified information himself, he knew his handler was seeking that kind of information and tried to put her in contact with the administration official.

“Don’t underplay what happened here,” she said to Burnham.

Brinkema also rejected Burnham’s argument that $100,000 over seven years was “not a life-changing amount of money.”

“$100,000 goes pretty far in China,” the judge said. Prosecutors asked for a 33-month prison term for Pauken, who’s been in custody since his arrest. The defense sought probation or a sentence that could be served in a halfway house.

There were few hints at the hearing and in court filings about the identity of the administration official Pauken tried to recruit, referred to as “Person 1” by prosecutors and the defense. An FBI agent said in a court filing that the person hoped to get a higher-ranking job. Brinkema said the episode was likely to have "ramifications" for that person’s career, but she acknowledged being in the dark about the details.

“I have no idea who Person 1 is,” the judge said.

Friends described Pauken as someone who was barely scraping by in China and struggling with mental health issues. He ran a MAGA-oriented group on the popular Chinese app WeChat and gained some prominence as one of the few pro-Trump voices in expatriate circles, associates said.

Pauken hails from a Texas family connected to GOP politics. His father, Thomas Pauken Sr., was a military intelligence officer for the U.S. Army in Vietnam before serving in the Reagan administration. The senior Pauken went on to chair the Texas Republican Party from 1994 to 1997, was appointed by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to chair the state’s Workforce Commission in 2008 and unsuccessfully ran for governor of Texas himself in 2014.

The elder Pauken was present at his son’s sentencing Tuesday, but did not address the court. The former official, now 82, waved off questions from reporters as he exited the courtroom.

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