{"id":1830,"date":"2026-09-03T10:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T10:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1830"},"modified":"2026-09-03T10:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T10:39:09","slug":"american-journalist-sentenced-to-prison-for-secretly-working-for-chinese-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1830","title":{"rendered":"American Journalist Sentenced to Prison for Secretly Working for Chinese Intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

An American journalist who admitted helping Chinese intelligence recruit sources and obtain sensitive U.S. government information was sentenced Tuesday to two years in federal prison.<\/p>\n

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Thomas Pauken II pleaded guilty in June to acting as an unregistered agent of China from 2019 until his arrest in 2026. Pauken, 50, had lived in China since 2010 and wrote for Xinhua News, China\u2019s state-run news agency.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Pauken worked closely with a Chinese intelligence officer known as \u201cCathy,\u201d who was affiliated with China\u2019s Ministry of State Security, or MSS.<\/p>\n

\u201cPauken exploited his U.S. citizenship and corresponding ability to travel to the U.S. without restriction in order to support Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) operations, recruiting, and gathering of sensitive information from potential assets,\u201d Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said. \u201cPauken betrayed his country for money.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to prosecutors, Pauken met potential intelligence sources in the United States, supplied them with laptops and cellphones and transmitted their reports to China. Cathy paid him at least $100,000 and covered travel expenses as he sought to recruit Americans who could provide information.<\/p>\n

Pauken was arrested in February following an FBI sting at a Washington hotel.<\/p>\n

During the recorded meeting, Pauken met with an unidentified U.S. government employee whom he had been attempting to recruit on Cathy\u2019s behalf. The individual had sought a position in the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

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Prosecutors said Cathy wanted the prospective source to produce reports that she claimed could reach Chinese President Xi Jinping and potentially influence Chinese policy.<\/p>\n

Pauken did not personally handle classified documents, but he acknowledged at sentencing that he provided sensitive information to China.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a lot of secrets and I did tell the Chinese about these secrets,\u201d Pauken told U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema. \u201cI thought I was helping, but now I realize I could\u2019ve caused even more damage, including war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pauken faced a maximum sentence of 10 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThomas Pauken knowingly assisted a foreign adversary in actively subverting the government of the United States for his own financial gain,\u201d First Assistant U.S. Attorney Theophani Stamos said.<\/p>\n

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An American journalist who admitted helping Chinese intelligence recruit sources and obtain sensitive U.S. government information was sentenced Tuesday to two\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Journalist Sentenced to Prison for Secretly Working for Chinese Intelligence - Urban Economy news<\/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:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=1830\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"American Journalist Sentenced to Prison for Secretly Working for Chinese Intelligence - 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