American journalist Thomas Pauken II sentenced to two years in prison for acting as an illegal agent for China
Thomas Weir Pauken II, an American journalist who worked for Chinese state media including Xinhua, was sentenced on September 2, 2026, to two years in federal prison and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty in June 2026 to acting as an unregistered agent of China's Ministry of State Security. Pauken was arrested in February 2026 at a Washington, D.C., hotel following an FBI sting operation in which he allegedly offered a $10,000 bribe and a SIM card to a U.S. government contact. Prosecutors said he received at least $100,000 from a Chinese intelligence handler known as 'Cathy' for recruiting assets and gathering sensitive information between 2019 and 2026.
- South China Morning Postfirst
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Broad agreement on what happened
Outlets across the spectrum land in roughly the same place: the shared language is highlighted.
“A US journalist sentenced to 2 years in federal prison for acting as an illegal agent for China” · AP News, South China Morning Post