American Journalist Caught In FBI Sting Admits Working For China

An American journalist pleaded guilty Thursday to working as an unregistered agent for China after prosecutors said he helped a Chinese intelligence officer try to steal classified information from the U.S. government. 

Thomas Pauken II, 50, admitted in a plea agreement with Justice Department prosecutors that he acted as an agent of China from 2019 to 2026. Prosecutors said Pauken worked for a member of the Chinese Ministry of State Security who sought sensitive information about the United States. 

“Pauken admitted to being part of a conspiracy to obtain sensitive information from the U.S. government for the PRC,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg. “His actions are a betrayal of this Nation and pose an unacceptable risk to our national security.”

Pauken has lived in China since 2010 and worked for the Chinese state media outlet Xinhua News. At the same time, prosecutors said, he was on the payroll of a member of the Chinese Ministry of State Security referred to in court documents as “Cathy.”

According to prosecutors, Cathy directed Pauken to meet with human sources in the United States, provide those sources with laptops and cellphones, and send their reports back to China. 

In February 2026, Pauken was arrested after an apparent FBI sting operation during a recorded meeting at a Washington, D.C. hotel.

At the meeting, Pauken met with an unidentified U.S. government employee who had sought a job in the Trump administration and whom Pauken had allegedly been attempting to recruit on Cathy’s behalf. Prosecutors said Cathy wanted the official to produce reports she claimed would make their way to Chinese President Xi Jinping and shape policy.

Pauken offered to pay the government employee a $10,000 bonus and subsequent payments funneled through a bogus nonprofit, according to court documents.  

Court documents state that Pauken himself did not personally handle classified information, but acted as an “intermediary to recruit individuals to provide classified information to the Chinese.”

Pauken also sold multiple reports to a group of Chinese people from Wuhan, according to prosecutors. 

“PAUKEN’s Wuhan clients mainly sought information about technology and the U.S. Department of Justice,” a statement of facts compiled by prosecutors agreed to by Pauken said. “The Wuhan clients wanted PAUKEN to find an expert who would help them engage in cyber espionage.”

Pauken told the FBI he believed his work would deter a military conflict between the United States and China and that he would support greater religious freedom through his contacts in both countries.

His sentencing is set for September 1, and he faces up to 10 years in prison.

“By his own admission, not only did Thomas Pauken attempt to infiltrate U.S. political circles at the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security,” said FBI official Roman Rozhavsky. “But he gathered intelligence on his American targets and reported it back to his Chinese intelligence handlers.”