A longtime American journalist and political commentator who lived in China for more than a decade has been charged in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia with acting as an unregistered Chinese agent working the the Chinese Communist Party. Thomas Weir Pauken II, who worked under the pseudonym Tom McGregor for Chinese state media outlets including CGTN, China Radio International, China Central Television, and the official Xinhua News Agency, is scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema for a pre-indictment plea hearing on Friday, May 29, 2026.
The case was first reported by Politico on May 25 and has since been covered by The Washington Times, The Hill, People, IBTimes UK, the Daily Caller News Foundation, and other outlets. According to an FBI affidavit signed by Special Agent Timothy Healy and unsealed in the Eastern District of Virginia, Pauken is alleged to have worked from at least 2019 through February 2026 at the direction and control of individuals known to operate on behalf of the People’s Republic of China and its civilian intelligence service, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), without first registering with the U.S. Attorney General.
The case is being brought under 18 U.S.C. § 951 rather than under the more commonly cited Foreign Agents Registration Act. Section 951 is the federal statute used by U.S. prosecutors in counterintelligence and national-security investigations, and it requires evidence that a defendant was acting under the actual direction or control of a foreign government, rather than simply engaging in lobbying or media work for foreign interests without registering. The maximum sentence under Section 951 is 10 years in prison. As of writing, the Department of Justice has not publicly issued a press release on the case.
Pauken’s pre-indictment plea hearing scheduled for May 29 is the type of hearing at which a defendant typically appears either to enter a plea bargain with prosecutors or to formally plead to some or all counts.
Pauken worked inside Chinese state media for more than a decade
According to the FBI affidavit and reporting by Politico and other outlets, Pauken moved to China around 2010 and built a public profile as a commentator for Beijing’s English-language state media, frequently appearing on CGTN broadcasts to defend Chinese government policies and discuss U.S.-China relations. He used the pseudonym Tom McGregor at the request of his father, Tom Pauken Sr., a longtime Texas Republican who served in the Reagan administration, chaired the Texas Republican Party from 1994 to 1997, was appointed by then-Governor Rick Perry to lead the Texas Workforce Commission, and ran unsuccessfully for Texas governor in 2014. The elder Pauken did not want his name publicly associated with his son’s media work in China.
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In 2019, Pauken published a book titled US vs China: From Trade War to Reciprocal Deal, which presented itself as offering “a neutral and balanced perspective” on tensions between the two countries.
The handler ‘Cathy’ and reports allegedly written for Xi Jinping
The FBI affidavit alleges that Pauken worked extensively with a Chinese contact he referred to as “Cathy,” whom he admitted he believed to be linked to China’s Ministry of State Security. “Cathy” directed Pauken to identify and cultivate sources of intelligence inside the United States, to introduce those sources to her, and to write analytical and policy reports to be transmitted back to Beijing. Pauken told investigators that “Cathy” had told him his reports would be read directly by Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
According to the affidavit, Pauken earned at least $100,000 from this work over the course of the relationship. His Chinese contacts also provided him with separate payments, typically $7,000 to $8,000 per trip, to cover travel costs for his activities inside the United States.
The affidavit also discloses that between 2022 and 2023, Pauken sat for a polygraph examination arranged by his Chinese handlers. The examination included questions about whether he had ever worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. The polygraph indicates a level of Chinese government concern with Pauken’s background and loyalty consistent with handling rather than casual cooperation.
From Dulles to Herndon: a year of FBI surveillance that ended in arrest
According to the affidavit, Pauken traveled to the United States in January 2025 and met with three individuals, including one who was actively seeking a position in the Trump administration. “Cathy” had directed Pauken to provide that individual with a Samsung phone and a laptop computer to establish an encrypted communications channel.
The individual’s identity has not been made public, but the FBI says the person has since obtained employment at a U.S. government agency. The person later told FBI investigators that they had provided Pauken only with publicly available information.
When Pauken arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport in January 2025, Customs and Border Protection and FBI agents interviewed him about his Chinese contacts and examined his electronic devices. The FBI did not arrest him at that point. Instead, agents instructed him to maintain his normal pattern of behavior so that his Chinese handlers would not detect U.S. law enforcement contact, while the FBI continued its counterintelligence collection. The FBI specifically warned Pauken not to disclose his contacts with U.S. law enforcement to anyone on the Chinese side. The Washington Times has reported, citing the affidavit, that the FBI was attempting to turn Pauken into a double agent.
According to the affidavit, Pauken eventually informed Chinese officials that he had been contacted by U.S. authorities, and this disclosure is what led directly to his arrest in Herndon, Virginia, in February 2026. For more than a year between the January 2025 Dulles interview and the February 2026 arrest, the FBI monitored Pauken’s contacts in the United States, including a hotel meeting in Washington at which Pauken handed the same individual a SIM card and offered $10,000 per week in exchange for one weekly report that, in Pauken’s words, “would influence policy and be read by Xi Jinping.” The arrest followed shortly after.
Pauken admitted to FBI investigators during a voluntary interview that his work with “Cathy” and other Chinese government contacts was, in his own words, “part of a conspiracy to obtain classified information from the United States government.” He also told investigators that he believed there was an “80 percent chance” that the unnamed target was willing to provide classified information to China. The admission indicates, in the FBI’s assessment, that Pauken understood the work he was doing as involving classified information rather than as routine policy commentary.
Pauken’s attorney, Charles Burnham, has emphasized to media outlets that his client is not charged with espionage or with the mishandling of classified information. “It’s critical to understand that Mr. Pauken is not charged with spying or mishandling classified information,” Burnham said. “The government’s complaint charges that Mr. Pauken did professional work for a foreign government without first completing certain required paperwork. We look forward to responding to the government’s allegations in court.”
U.S. media coverage has noted that the Justice Department’s choice to charge under Section 951 rather than under FARA itself signals the department’s view of the seriousness of the allegations. In March 2026, U.S. Magistrate Judge Ivan Davis denied Pauken’s request for pretrial release. He has remained in federal custody since.
Pauken’s family background has drawn additional attention to the case. According to the affidavit, Pauken told FBI investigators that his Chinese contacts had repeatedly pressed him for information about his father’s political connections inside the Republican Party. “All [of Pauken’s] Chinese associates were obsessed with attaining information on Pauken’s father who had worked for the Reagan administration,” the affidavit said. The backdrop, in the FBI’s assessment, may have been one of the reasons Beijing was interested in cultivating Pauken in the first place.
Pauken joins a string of recent China influence convictions
The Pauken case is the latest in a long series of recent U.S. federal prosecutions targeting alleged Chinese government influence and intelligence operations on American soil. According to the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, more than 60 China-related espionage and influence cases were documented across 20 U.S. states between February 2021 and December 2024. The cases involved alleged transfer of sensitive military intelligence, theft of commercial trade secrets, transnational repression, obstruction of justice, and other charges.
Recent convictions and guilty pleas include Eileen Wang, mayor of Arcadia, California, who resigned and pleaded guilty on May 11, 2026; her campaign adviser Yaoning “Mike” Sun, who was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison in February 2026; and Lu Jianwang, the former chairman of the America ChangLe Association in New York, who was convicted earlier this month for his role operating an unregistered Chinese government “Overseas 110 Police Service Station” in Manhattan’s Chinatown.
A central question now is whether Pauken will, as part of any plea bargain, disclose additional details about Chinese intelligence networks operating inside the United States, and whether the case will reveal further involvement of U.S. government insiders.
By Jin Yan, Vision Times
