U.S. sentences man accused of acting as Chinese agent to two years in prison

Thomas Weir Pauken II, a U.S. citizen who spent years working for Chinese state media, received a two-year prison sentence for acting in the United States as an unregistered agent of China. He must also serve three years of supervised release and cannot travel abroad during that period.

Pauken, 51, pleaded guilty in June in federal court in Virginia, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Court documents say that from at least 2019 through February 2026, he acted under the direction of several people connected to the Chinese government, including a woman he called “Cathy” and acknowledged was part of China’s Ministry of State Security.

The woman instructed Pauken to meet potential intelligence sources in the United States and provide them with mobile phones and laptops so they could communicate with her. Prosecutors said he passed along requests for information from his Chinese contacts and returned the reports he obtained. He received at least $100,000, while his contact also covered expenses for several trips between China and the United States from 2019 to 2025.

Border agents questioned Pauken in January 2025 after he arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport carrying two phones, a laptop and $3,000 in cash. In later FBI interviews, he admitted that he was supposed to deliver a phone and buy a computer for someone seeking a position in the incoming Donald Trump administration. An affidavit said Pauken believed there was an 80% chance the person would provide classified information to China if appointed.

Although that contact stopped cooperating, Pauken tried to recruit the person again in February and offered a $10,000 bonus and a SIM card for communication with “Cathy.” He also admitted acting as an intermediary to recruit people who could provide classified information, while saying he did not want to handle such material directly. Pauken moved to China around 2010 and worked as a journalist and editor for China Radio International, China Central Television, China Global Television Network and Xinhua, according to court records.