By Lucretia Hughes
WASHINGTON — Chinese government and state media records reportedly identify former U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao as holding several advisory and honorary positions connected to the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party’s influence apparatus, including roles that may have overlapped with her service in two presidential administrations.
The findings were published Tuesday by the Daily Caller News Foundation, which said it translated and reviewed Chinese government announcements, state media reports and archived webpages dating back to 2004.
Chao’s spokesperson strongly denied that she ever held a position with a foreign government or acted on behalf of one.
Her husband, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has not offered his own explanation. His office declined the publication’s request for comment.
That silence is not an answer.
According to the report, Chinese records named Chao to at least four positions beginning in 2008. Several were reportedly connected to organizations operating within the United Front system, which the CCP uses to cultivate influential people, shape foreign opinion and advance Beijing’s interests overseas.
One reported position came in December 2008, when the Jiading branch of the China Overseas Friendship Association named Chao and her father, shipping executive James S.C. Chao, honorary chairmen of its third council.
Chao was still serving as President George W. Bush’s labor secretary at the time.
Chinese reports later identified Chao and her father as advisers to the organization’s next council, which operated from 2012 through 2017. That period extended into the beginning of Chao’s service as transportation secretary during President Donald Trump’s first administration.
The Daily Caller News Foundation also reported that the Jiading branch of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese named Chao an adviser and committee member for a council serving from 2012 through 2017.
Both organizations have been linked to the United Front Work Department.
The United Front is not simply another international cultural association. The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has described the system as a tool Beijing uses to influence foreign policy, cultivate relationships and gain access to foreign technology and expertise.
Chinese records also reportedly described Chao as an international adviser to the Wuhan municipal government beginning in October 2009. The reports did not establish whether that position was paid.
Chao’s spokesperson, Patrick O’Connor, disputed the report’s characterization.
“She has never held a position with a foreign government or acted on behalf of one,” O’Connor said, adding that Chao’s representatives were unaware of her meeting with United Front entities.
O’Connor said Chao received numerous honorary titles, degrees and awards during her public career. He maintained that she did not understand some titles reportedly given to her in China because she is not fluent in Chinese.
He also called questions about her patriotism unfounded and potentially racist.
Chao was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the United States as a child. She became an American citizen at 19 and served in numerous federal positions before becoming the first Asian American woman to serve in a presidential Cabinet.
Her heritage is not the issue.
The CCP is the issue. Transparency is the issue. Whether a sitting Cabinet secretary held, accepted or was publicly used to promote positions connected to a foreign government’s influence network is the issue.
Questions about the CCP should never become an excuse for prejudice against Chinese Americans, Taiwanese Americans or anyone else. But accusations of racism cannot be used as a shield against legitimate questions involving national security and public disclosure.
According to the report, Chao did not list the disputed Chinese positions during her 2017 Senate confirmation process, which required her to disclose positions held during the preceding 10 years.
If the titles were merely ceremonial and bestowed without her knowledge, Chao should release documentation proving that. If she rejected the appointments, show the records. If the Chinese reports were false, misleading or mistranslated, identify each error publicly.
Those are reasonable questions for anyone who held authority over the United States transportation system.
They are especially reasonable because Chao is married to one of the most powerful Republicans in modern Senate history.
McConnell’s absence from public life because of his recent health problems deserves human compassion. He was hospitalized following a June fall, underwent rehabilitation and later continued recovering at home.
But McConnell still holds public office, and his Senate staff remains responsible for answering questions on behalf of Kentucky’s elected senator.
So where is Mitch’s response?
McConnell’s office had the opportunity to address the findings and reportedly declined. The American people should not be expected to accept silence when Chinese government records raise questions about the wife of a longtime senator and former Cabinet secretary.
The Daily Caller’s reporting does not independently prove that Chao knowingly worked for the CCP, received money or performed services for Beijing. No evidence of a quid pro quo was presented.
But the records and conflicting explanations demand an investigation, complete documentation and direct answers.
This is not about Chao’s race or where she was born. It is about whether foreign-linked roles were accepted, understood and properly disclosed while she occupied positions of public trust.
Public officials do not get to demand trust while avoiding transparency.
Elaine Chao should answer every question. Mitch McConnell’s office should stop hiding behind “no comment.” And Congress should determine exactly what happened.
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