ALEXANDRIA, Va.—An American journalist has pleaded guilty to acting as a Chinese agent and supplying intelligence to Beijing.
Thomas Weir Pauken II, 51, took tasks for years from Chinese intelligence officers, receiving at least $100,000 from one officer identified as “Cathy,” according to the plea agreement.
His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 1. Pauken faces up to 10 years in prison along with three years of supervised release and a maximum fine of $250,000.
Appearing in a forest green inmate uniform on June 4, Pauken said he was not fully aware of the U.S. law prohibiting the actions.
He promised not to knowingly contact any foreign intelligence agents or officials or seek or accept benefits from such individuals. Violation of that promise would lead to “significant ramifications,” said Judge Leonie Brinkema, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Pauken has lived and worked in China since 2010, according to his social media account.
Cathy made him take a lie detector test, telling him that his reports were read by Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Cathy, who told Pauken that she could not visit the United States, appeared interested in obtaining classified materials from Pauken. Under her instructions, Pauken compiled reports and recorded interviews based on his contacts’ responses to Cathy’s questions, according to the plea agreement.
She instructed Pauken to always delete communication records after she received them. Both Pauken and his sources would then get paid, the plea agreement states.
Some of the reports covered political campaigns, candidates’ policy proposals, and U.S.–China relations, and on at least one occasion, Pauken was in China while conducting a phone interview with a Virginia-based individual, identified as “Person 1,” who is currently working at a U.S. government agency.
“Tom, you are going to be the one to convince [Person 1] to provide classified information,” the plea agreement quoted Cathy as saying.
In January 2025, Pauken flew from China to Washington carrying a cellphone for Person 1 along with $3,000 to purchase a laptop for the person, as Cathy had instructed.
Charles Burnham, an attorney for Pauken, told The Epoch Times that in pleading guilty, Pauken had "accepted responsibility" for his actions.
"[Pauken] urges all Americans working internationally to be ever mindful of the Foreign Agent Registration Act and related federal laws so what happened to him does not happen to you," Burnham said in a statement on behalf of his client.
Pauken has worked for major Chinese state media outlets such as the radio broadcaster China Radio International, the English-language news channel China Global Television Network, and Xinhua, the primary mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party.
On Quora, Pauken repeatedly took positions favorable to the Chinese regime, saying in one 2021 post, which was quoted by Guancha, that Beijing had been described in “villainous terms” and seen as vying for world dominion, but that Beijing is just “so unique and refuses to be a follower.”
The son of a Reagan administration official and former Texas Republican Party chairman, Pauken used an alias, Tom McGregor, to create some distance between his activities in China and his family.