DCNF Reporter Dylan Kresak Details Unreported Ties Of Former Two-Time Cabinet Secretary Elaine Chao To Chinese Government

Daily Caller News Foundation reporter Dylan Kresak, during a Saturday appearance on “America Right Now,” detailed a former cabinet secretary’s previously unreported ties to the Chinese government.

Kresak spoke with Newsmax host Tom Basile about an investigative report the DCNF broke Tuesday which found that Elaine Chao, a two-time White House cabinet secretary and the spouse of Republican Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, held roles within organizations linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

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“What exactly are these reported or alleged connections between Elaine Chao and organizations that are tied to the CCP?” Basile asked Kresak.

“Originally, my colleague, Phil Lenczycki, found that three titles were given to Elaine Chao that were tied to organizations affiliated with the United Front Work Department, which is an arm of the Chinese Communist Party,” Kresak responded. “When she was asked to disclose these titles in 2017 for her appointment to the Department of Transportation, she did not disclose any of these positions that she had held in the past two years during her time serving in the U.S. Cabinet.”

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party previously described the United Front Work Department (UFWD)’s work as “a unique blend of engagement, influence activities, and intelligence operations that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses to shape its political environment, including to influence other countries’ policy toward the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and to gain access to advanced foreign technology.”

Basile then asked about the origins of Chao’s appointments and whether she had ties to China through a family or business relationship during her first cabinet role as the secretary of labor under former President George W. Bush.

“Some of these positions were given to her in the early 2000s,” Kresak said. “Around 2005 she had … received letters written to her by organizations affiliated with the United Front Work Department — Christmas letters, in fact, with pictures attached. So, this relationship was a personal one as much as a business one.”

Chao sent a handwritten reply and autographed photo to those Jiading-based arms of China’s UFWD in February 2005.

The UFWD groups behind the Christmas letters were the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC) and the Chinese Overseas Friendship Association (COFA).

ACFROC’s Jiading branch reportedly appointed Chao as an adviser and member of its fifth council between September 2012 and 2017.

COFA’s Jiading branch reportedly appointed Chao and her father as honorary chairmen of its third council in December 2008. They then served on the branch’s fourth council, which ran between September 2012 and 2017.

Meanwhile, Chao served as labor secretary between January 2001 and January 2009, and as President Donald Trump’s transportation secretary between January 2017 and January 2021.

Basile noted that Chao’s spokesperson has pushed back against the allegations.

“But, of course, it’s a communist country, so the government touches everything that’s associated with anything, whether it’s business or private,” he added before asking Kresak if this kind of relationship between a member of the president’s cabinet and a strategic adversary previously existed.

“I would have to refer you to the original reporting on that because I’m unsure on that front; however, I can tell you that her relationship with these Chinese officials is long-standing, as far back as her time with the Department of Labor,” Kresak said. “When given photo evidence of these positions to her spokesperson, they had not just denied these allegations, but called them racist. But they did not provide any sort of counterclaims or evidence to the contrary.”