EXCLUSIVE: Mitch McConnell’s Wife Elaine Chao Held Appointments From Chinese Communist Party Organizations While Serving In Cabinet

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials appointed Sen. Mitch McConnell’s wife to multiple government positions, many of which partially overlapped with her two U.S. Cabinet posts, according to Chinese government and state media reports unearthed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Elaine Chao, who married the Kentucky Republican in 1993, has held numerous U.S. government positions since the 1980s, including serving as Department of Labor (DOL) secretary throughout President George W. Bush’s tenure and as Department of Transportation (DOT) secretary during President Donald Trump’s first term. After resigning from the Trump administration in January 2021, Chao then served on the board of EV charging company ChargePoint between 2021 and 2026, and is now listed as a distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.

Chao — whose Chinese name is Zhao Xiaolan — has also received at least four Chinese government positions since 2008, including within arms of a CCP influence and intelligence agency called the United Front Work Department (UFWD), according to DCNF translations of Chinese government and state media reports. Beijing uses the UFWD to steer foreign policy and “gain access to advanced foreign technology,” according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC).

Chao did not disclose any of the reported Chinese government positions during her January 2017 DOT secretary Senate confirmation hearing, which required her to list all positions held within the last ten years.

Chao’s late sister, Angela Chao, and father, James S.C. Chao, founder of shipping firm Foremost Group, both also received Chinese government and UFWD arm positions, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government and state media reports.

The spokesman for Chao and Foremost Group, Patrick O’Connor, denied Chao, her sister or father had held such positions.

“She has never held a position with a foreign government or acted on behalf of one. We are not aware she has met with representatives from UFWD entities,” O’Connor said after being sent Chinese government and state media photos published between 2010 and 2026 showing Chao meeting with officials from the CCP and/or UFWD. “Such a suggestion disregards her nearly five decades of faithful service to the United States and is both unfounded and deeply insulting, hurtful and racist.”

The DCNF asked O’Connor why Chao believes it is “racist” to investigate her ties to the Chinese government.

“No one seems to care when most American business or political leaders hold meetings in China, so it’s suspicious when the Daily Caller makes insinuations about a former two-time cabinet secretary of Asian descent, especially based on photos, some of which are decades old,” O’Connor said. “The secretary is a proud American who has devoted most of her professional life to serving the American people. To question her patriotism is a double standard, at best — racist, at worst.”

Questions about Chao’s Chinese government ties first arose as early as 2001 following her DOL nomination and recently resurfaced after McConnell was hospitalized in June 2026 while Chao visited China. McConnell’s office declined to comment.

“No American, no matter how high and mighty, should have any ties with the Communist Party’s UFWD,” Gordon Chang, China expert and author, told the DCNF. “This organization is dedicated to destroying our country. This should not be hard to understand.”

‘Disqualifying’

Chao — who was born in Taiwan and obtained U.S. citizenship at age 19 — received three positions in UFWD arms and a Chinese government advisory role, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government and state media reports.

Those reports describe Chao’s appointments in various ways, with some stating she had been “hired” or had “accepted an appointment letter,” while others simply note that she was then among those “holding” a given title.

Between at least October 2004 and August 2018, the homepage of the UFWD website for Shanghai’s Jiading District — birthplace of Chao’s father — featured a series of biographies on Chao. Those biographies were showcased alongside figures celebrated by the UFWD as role models for United Front work, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements.

Although it remains unclear when Chao first interacted with UFWD officials, as DOL secretary she corresponded with Jiading UFWD arms after receiving a Christmas card from two such entities in 2004, according to a DCNF translation of a UFWD report.

Chao reportedly sent a handwritten reply and autographed photo to those UFWD arms in February 2005, which they received the following month.

Both of the Jiading UFWD arms behind the 2004 Christmas card ultimately appointed Chao to positions that reportedly overlapped with her Cabinet secretary roles.

Chao’s United Front connections “should be disqualifying for dogcatcher, much less a Cabinet position,” said Jacqueline Deal, an advisory board member of State Armor, after reviewing the DCNF’s findings. State Armor is a nonprofit focused on countering “the threat of Communist China.”

“As Transportation Secretary, [Chao] did nothing to fix U.S. policy failures that have decimated our maritime industrial base while her family business profited from the CCP’s aggressive moves to exploit those failures,” Deal added.

One of Chao’s two pen pals was the Jiading branch of the UFWD’s All-China Federation Of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), which appointed her as an advisor and committee member of its 5th council between September of 2012 and 2017, partially overlapping with Chao’s DOT secretary tenure, according to DCNF translations of Chinese state media reports.

ACFROC’s functions include promoting Beijing’s narratives, strengthening party support, attracting talent and sometimes also “conducting influence and intelligence operations,” Cheryl Yu, fellow in China Studies at The Jamestown Foundation, told the DCNF.

“[ACFROC] recruits prominent diaspora figures, including businesspeople, lawyers, academics, media figures and leaders of community associations, particularly those with access, status or the ability to mobilize others,” Yu said.

Chao also reportedly received several positions from the Jiading branch of the UFWD’s China Overseas Friendship Association (COFA), which co-authored the 2004 Christmas card, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government and state media reports.

COFA’s Jiading branch initially appointed both Chao and her father — whose Chinese name is Zhao Xicheng — as honorary chairmen of its 3rd council in December 2008 while Chao served as DOL secretary, according to a DCNF translation of a state media report.

The branch also appointed several Chinese government officials as honorary chairmen at that time, including Jiading’s chief, party secretary, deputy party secretary and chairman of the local Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which is a CCP arm that carries out United Front work, according to a 2023 USCC report and DCNF translations of Chinese government announcements.

Those four district officials had met with Chao just months earlier in August 2008, after she led a U.S. delegation to attend the Beijing Olympics. At the invitation of the local government, Chao and her father visited Jiading on Aug. 27, where they met with the four officials and the district UFWD minister, according to DCNF translations of state media reports.

“Throughout my life, as I’ve moved forward, I have tried to preserve and remember my cultural roots. This is also the reason I am who I am,” Chao said during the visit, according to a DCNF translation of a Chinese state media report.

Several years after receiving the honorary appointments, Chao and her father were identified as advisors of the subsequent council of COFA’s Jiading branch. The 4th council of COFA’s Jiading branch ran between September 2012 and 2017, and likewise partially overlapped with Chao’s DOT tenure, according to DCNF translations of state media and Chinese government reports.

Chao’s sister Angela — whose Chinese name was Zhao Anji — was later identified as a director of COFA’s national organization in 2019, according to a DCNF translation of an announcement on COFA’s website.

“COFA advances CCP objectives through soft power by using relationship-building, cultural diplomacy and people-to-people exchanges rather than coercion,” Ina Mitchell, a Chinese intelligence expert, told the DCNF. “Many analysts characterize these activities as operating in the grey zone between legitimate public diplomacy and covert political influence.”

After her DOL tenure, a CCP official also tapped Chao to serve as a Wuhan municipal government international advisor in October 2009, owing to her “extensive experience and resources in international affairs” and perceived ability to create “more favorable conditions for Wuhan in matters of foreign affairs and attracting overseas talent,” according to DCNF translations of state media reports.

Those reports did not specify whether the position was paid or unpaid.

“On her first visit to Wuhan, [Chao] said she was deeply impressed by the city’s immense development potential and she expressed her willingness to promote mutual understanding between the peoples of the U.S. and China as well as cooperation and exchange across various domains, and, at the same time, [said] she’d do her best to fulfill her duties within her area of expertise as a Wuhan municipal government international advisor,” according to a DCNF translation of a related October 2009 Chinese government announcement concerning Chao’s appointment.

Chao’s father and late sister had both also received Wuhan government advisory positions by 2019, according to a Chinese government announcement and a DCNF translation of a profile of Chao’s father featured on the UFWD’s Jiading branch website.

“The secretary has received countless honorary degrees, titles, recognitions, keys to the city and other official awards over her career in public service,” Chao’s spokesperson told the DCNF. “During those presentations, it is customary for her to be photographed with local officials and others affiliated with the institutions involved. She remembers this event in Wuhan for its large, chaotic crowds, but was unaware of the title bestowed to her, in part, because she is not fluent in Chinese.”

The spokesman’s account, however, differs from contemporaneous Chinese state media reporting about the appointment.

During one May 2010 Chinese-language state media interview conducted in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, Chao appeared alongside her father, who said he and his daughter were both Wuhan government advisors, according to a DCNF translation of the report.

“In fact, Xiaolan and I are both advisors to the municipal government of Wuhan, Hubei — a city in central China,” Chao’s father said using her Chinese name, according to a DCNF translation.

Chao “even played the role of a television reporter” during that interview by holding the microphone for her father while he spoke, according to a DCNF translation of the report, which includes an accompanying photo showing Chao doing just that.

Cabinet secretaries should not hold positions with the Chinese government or UFWD arms, Scott McGregor, a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police intelligence official, told the DCNF.

“This is not merely a matter of political optics or an abstract conflict-of-interest concern. It is a counterintelligence, governance and sovereignty issue,” McGregor said. “The absence of a proven quid pro quo would not make such an appointment acceptable; the appointment itself would create an avoidable and serious vulnerability in the executive branch.”

“From a counterintelligence perspective, the relevant question is not simply whether money changed hands or whether an official favor can be identified,” McGregor said. “The proper questions are whether the affiliation created access, whether it normalized contact with United Front personnel, whether it generated social or reputational obligations, whether the official’s status was used to legitimize the organization and whether the relationship could influence what the official was willing to say, examine or challenge.”