{"id":198,"date":"2026-06-04T19:14:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T19:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=198"},"modified":"2026-06-04T19:14:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T19:14:19","slug":"american-journalist-pleads-guilty-to-acting-as-a-chinese-government-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=198","title":{"rendered":"American Journalist Pleads Guilty to Acting as a Chinese Government Agent"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An American journalist pleaded guilty Thursday to acting as an agent of the Chinese government.<\/p>\n

Read more John Bolton To Plead Guilty to Mishandling Classified Information<\/a><\/p>\n

Thomas Pauken II, who has lived in China for more than a decade, entered his plea in an Alexandria, Virginia, courthouse less than six months after U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents stopped him as he entered the country with personal items that they said included $3,000 in cash and a yellow piece of paper filled with passwords for encrypted messaging applications.<\/p>\n

During interviews with border patrol agents and the Federal Bureau of Investigations after he was stopped in January, Pauken admitted he was traveling to the United States to recruit an unnamed individual seeking a job with the Trump administration in order to pass information to Chinese intelligence services, according to an filed in February by Special Agent Timothy Healy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy his guilty plea, Mr. Pauken has accepted responsibility for working as an agent of the People\u2019s Republic of China without first completing certain required U.S. Government forms,\u201d his lawyer, Charles Burnham, wrote in a statement on behalf of his client. \u201cMr. Pauken hoped his work would promote peaceful relations and advance the cause of religious freedom in China.\u201d<\/p>\n

By day, Pauken was most recently an editor at the Chinese state news outlet Xinhua News. But the details an apparent double life: Pauken told investigators that he worked as a \u201cmiddleman\u201d between his handler, \u201cCathy\u201d \u2014 who he said worked for China\u2019s Ministry of State Security \u2014 and individuals who may have been willing to hand over information about the American government.<\/p>\n

Over the course of seven years, prosecutors said the Chinese government paid Pauken a total of $100,000 plus travel expenses. Pauken faces up to 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Pauken previously worked for China Global Television Network, China Central Television and China Radio International. He wrote under the name \u201cTom McGregor.\u201d<\/p>\n

His father, a prominent Texas political figure also named Thomas Pauken, asked his son to use the pen name to avoid being associated with his son\u2019s activities in China, according to the .<\/p>\n

The elder Pauken previously worked in President Ronald Reagan\u2019s White House and chaired the Texas Republican Party. The younger Pauken\u2019s Chinese handlers were \u201cobsessed\u201d with getting information about his father, the affidavit said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s taken first personal responsibility for his actions. He\u2019s not divulged any American secrets. He\u2019s not an American spy,\u201d the elder Pauken told NOTUS in a phone interview Thursday. He advised his son to \u201ctake this forward and sort of rebuild your life\u201d and said he was \u201csupportive\u201d of the agreement.<\/p>\n

He described his son as a \u201cvery naive person\u201d who he believes \u201cgot roped into something that was far beyond what he thought he was doing\u201d and insisted his son\u2019s crime was failing to register his activities under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.<\/p>\n

Burnham asserted Thursday that his client did not seek \u201cclassified information,\u201d as the government had originally alleged. But he did not disagree when Judge Leonie Brinkema characterized the intel as information not in the public domain.<\/p>\n

The unnamed individual investigators say Pauken tried to recruit did not get the job they wanted in the Trump administration but worked for an unspecified government agency as of February, when Healy wrote the .<\/p>\n

Read more Democrats Concede Gun Control Is No Longer Their Top Issue<\/a><\/p>\n

Burnham declined to comment on the identity of the unnamed individual when asked by Politico\u2019s Josh Gerstein outside the courtroom.<\/p>\n

Blanche characterized Pauken in his as a \u201cserious flight risk\u201d and a \u201csignificant danger to the public\u201d \u2014 specifically, his intent to recruit people willing to pass information to the Chinese government.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is faced with [the] dilemma of needing to continue passing information to the MSS\u2014such as the identity and status of potential recruits\u2014in order to ensure a supply of money and, perhaps, the safety of his family,\u201d Blanche wrote.<\/p>\n

Neither the Chinese embassy nor Xinhua News responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Acting as a foreign agent is a heftier charge than violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a transparency statute that requires anyone conducting lobbying or advocacy campaigns on behalf of a foreign government to register and file regular updates with the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n

In February 2025, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi dissolved<\/u><\/span> the Department of Justice\u2019s foreign influence task force and directed officials to focus on \u201cmore traditional espionage by foreign government actors.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Justice Department has scored some high profile FARA wins in the last year.<\/p>\n

Last month, former Rep. David Rivera (R-Florida) was convicted<\/u><\/span> on FARA and money-laundering charges related to his lucrative unregistered lobbying activities on behalf of the Venezuelan government.<\/p>\n

And in November 2025, Pras Michel of the Fugees was sentenced to 14 years in prison after being convicted of several crimes including acting as an unregistered foreign agent. He began his sentence<\/u><\/span> in late April.<\/p>\n

Rivera was charged<\/u><\/span> during President Joe Biden\u2019s administration. Michel was originally in 2019, during Trump\u2019s first term, and convicted<\/u><\/span> in 2023.<\/p>\n

The recent case of Eileen Wang, the former mayor of Arcadia, California, illustrates the shift away from FARA toward charges of acting as a foreign agent. Wang pleaded guilty<\/u><\/span> last week to acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government by disseminating propaganda through a website purporting to be a news source for the Chinese-American community, according to a copy of the plea agreement. Wang also faces up to 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. 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,\u201d the statement from Pauken\u2019s lawyer warns.<\/p>\n

Read more Democrats Ready a Slew of Amendments for the Defense Policy Debate<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Federal prosecutors accused Thomas Pauken II of trying to recruit people to pass information to Chinese intelligence services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-courts"],"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Journalist Pleads Guilty to Acting as a Chinese Government Agent - Modern Home Journals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=198\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"American Journalist Pleads Guilty to Acting as a Chinese Government Agent - Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Federal prosecutors accused Thomas Pauken II of trying to recruit people to pass information to Chinese intelligence services.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=198\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-04T19:14:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=198#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=198\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"headline\":\"American Journalist Pleads Guilty to Acting as a Chinese Government Agent\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-04T19:14:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=198\"},\"wordCount\":976,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=198#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/c07f86cc3dc5ee38c2ca5e399be87b4a-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Courts\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=198#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=198\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=198\",\"name\":\"American Journalist Pleads Guilty to Acting as a Chinese Government Agent - 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