Counterintelligence & Tradecraft — 2026-06-09

US Citizen Thomas Pauken II Pleads Guilty to Spying for China Ministry of State Security

BLUFPauken's plea confirms Xinhua as a functional MSS cover platform and exposes a failed FBI double-agent gambit that likely alerted Beijing to U.S. counterintelligence methods.

Thomas W. Pauken II, 50, pleaded guilty June 5 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria to acting as an unregistered agent of China, with sentencing set for September 1 and a maximum penalty of 10 years 12. Court documents state Pauken, who worked for Xinhua under the alias "Tom McGregor," was paid at least $100,000 by Ministry of State Security handlers to supply communications equipment, facilitate recruitment meetings with American targets, and report on U.S. political circles from 2019 through early 2026 1. He also sold reports to Wuhan-based clients seeking information about the DOJ and a hacker for cyber espionage operations, according to the DOJ announcement 12. The Washington Times, citing court papers, reports the FBI initially sought to run Pauken as a double agent against the MSS before prosecution proceeded after he disclosed his FBI contact to Chinese handlers 1. Court documents further indicate Pauken was subjected to an MSS polygraph around 2022-2023 because his reporting reached Xi Jinping, and at the time of his January 2025 CBP intercept he was traveling to recruit a job-seeker targeting the incoming Trump administration for Chinese intelligence access 1.

Analysis
The plea record documents Xinhua functioning as an active MSS recruitment platform against non-cleared American political contacts, extending Beijing's human collection effort beyond the cleared-personnel targeting that counterintelligence resources are organized to detect. The collapsed FBI double-agent operation, terminated after Pauken disclosed his Bureau contact to Chinese handlers, is a counterintelligence setback the prosecution does not offset. Pauken will likely receive a custodial sentence by September 1, though analytic confidence is low: cooperation credit and sentencing guidelines remain undisclosed in publicly available filings. His role as hardware supplier and meeting facilitator positions him as a logistics cutout rather than an intelligence producer, capping substantive collection damage. A non-custodial outcome would nonetheless undermine the deterrent framing DOJ has constructed around MSS co-optee cases.

3 sources

American who helped China gather secrets pleads guilty - Washington Times
US citizen pleads guilty to spying for China - TechRadar
American Citizen Pleads Guilty to Working as an Agent for the People's Republic of China - US Department of Justice