Highlights
- American journalist who worked as a spy for China was sentenced to 2 years in jail.
- Pocon claimed to have received at least one lakh dollars from China in return for his work.
- Pacon admitted the crime in the court, the lawyer said – did not give any confidential information to China.
Washington: An American journalist has been sentenced to 2 years in prison for working as a foreign agent for China in America. Giving information about this, the US Justice Department said that 51-year-old Thomas Weir Pocan II had confessed to his crime earlier this year. According to his attorney Charles Burnham, Pocon will not appeal the sentence. The Justice Department said in a statement released Tuesday that Pocan will be kept under observation for 36 months after completing his prison sentence. During this period he will not be allowed to travel abroad. He was arrested in February.
Accused of working for China
This matter has come to light at a time when tension continues between America and China. It is one of a number of recent federal cases in which people have been accused of working for the Chinese government without providing information to US authorities. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said that ‘Pacon betrayed his country for money.’ According to the Justice Department, he was working to assist China’s Ministry of State Security in operations, recruiting people and gathering sensitive information from potential associates.
Pokan had gone to China in 2010
Pokan moved to China in 2010. There she worked as a journalist for several Chinese news organizations. These included China’s government television network CCTV. He was working as an editor at Xinhua, China’s state news agency, since 2024. This was his most recent job. Her attorney Charles Burnham said,
‘Pokan has accepted his responsibility and respects the court’s decision. As the government has admitted in court, Pocon did not provide any confidential or classified information to China.
For how much did Pokan sell Zameer?
According to court documents, from at least 2019 to February 2026, Pocan acted at the direction of people he knew worked for the Chinese government. These people also included a woman whom Pacon had met in 2017. The name of this woman has been mentioned as ‘Kathy’ in the documents. FBI Special Agent Timothy J. According to a federal court affidavit filed by Healy on February 27, ‘Kathy’ told Pocon that the report she prepared was read by Chinese President Xi Jinping. According to the US Justice Department, Pocon had received at least 1 lakh US dollars (about Rs 95 lakh) in return for the work done with ‘Kathy’.
Pocon also recruited people
Paukan was not only made to do the work of writing reports. ‘Kathy’ also asked him to recruit people who could provide confidential information. In one case, Pocan was instructed to meet with a person referred to as ‘Person 1’ in the affidavit. He had to give the person a Samsung phone, a computer and the passwords of Signal and Telegram. Apart from this, it was also asked to provide information about Netdisk. Let us tell you that recently there was a news in which A Chinese spy even became mayor in California.
Money also came into wife’s bank accounts
According to the court affidavit, when Pocon was returning to America in January 2025, he was stopped by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials. During questioning by CBP and FBI officials, Pocan said he was ’80 percent confident’ that a person trying to get a job in the Trump administration could provide classified information to China. However, Pocon advised the man not to do so. Pocan also told investigators that ‘Kathy’ had been paying for his trips to and from the United States for several years and often transferred money to his wife’s bank accounts.
Pokan also changed his name
Pocon, who hails from Texas, used the name ‘Tom McGregor’ while working as a journalist and commentator. According to court documents, he used this name at the behest of his father. His father’s name is also Thomas Pocan and he wanted his own identity to remain separate from his son’s work in China. However, Pocan used his real name as Thomas W. Also published 2 books from Pocon II. His first book on US-China relations was published in 2019. The second book was set in the Chinese city of Shenzhen in 2023. Shenzhen is a city located opposite Hong Kong in Mainland China.
Paukan’s father was also in politics
Pocan’s father was chairman of the Texas Republican Party in the 1990s. He also ran for governor of Texas more than a decade ago. The most recent public posts from Paukon’s Facebook account under the name ‘McGregor’ included photos of his wife and child. In the post she wrote, ‘My family and I are enjoying our trip to Washington DC.’ Following this post, Pocan was arrested the same month. This matter has come to light from the American authorities at a time when action has increased in America in cases of alleged espionage and foreign agents related to China. (With inputs from AP)
