On June 4, 2026, a China-based American journalist, Thomas Pauken II, pleaded guilty in a Virginia court to charges of acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government. He had been detained during his most recent return to the United States in February 2026 and was accused of trying to recruit people to pass information to Chinese intelligence services. The FBI, which was monitoring him, said over the course of seven years, the Chinese government paid Pauken a total of $100,000 as well as bearing expenses for his frequent travels from China to the United States for his service. If convicted, he faces up to ten years in prison.
Pauken is not an isolated case of Americans being deployed by Chinese intelligence to do their dirty work in the United States. There have been others who have been involved in industrial and political espionage for China. Nevertheless, as insidious as his action was, my attention to him was drawn by another fact — his cover in China was working for Chinese state media outlets like Xinhua, China Radio International, China Central Television and China Global Television Network (CGTN).
Journalists Thomas Pauken (right) and Shamin Zakaria (left)
working for Chinese state media.
Seeking recourse to a pseudonym “Tom McGregor” (on the suggestion of his father Thomas Pauken, a politician from Texas), he has written many articles in English for Chinese state media outlets. While it’s not unusual for journalists to find work in different media outlets in countries other than their own, the difference with “McGregor”/Pauken was that rather than serving as an impartial journalist, he let himself be a tool in the Chinese government’s campaign to reshape its global image.
In particular, McGregor has written several articles on Tibet trying to alter the global narrative on major issues of interest. His writings are thus part of China’s strategy of utilizing foreigners, including journalists and influencers, as part of its disinformation machinery.
In the case of Tibet, one of China’s main efforts is to undermine the credibility of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to project a positive image of Chinese rule in Tibet. Pauken was tasked with an article for the official China Daily on May 23, 2011, where he wrote as McGregor under the headline, “Truth nails the Dalai Lama myth.” He mused, “Many Westerners believe that the Dalai Lama is an angelic hero for Tibetans. They perceive the central government’s role in the Tibet autonomous region as diabolical ever since Tibetans were liberated 60 years ago on May 23, 1951. These Western perceptions seem inspired more by myths than truth.”
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