A new report from the Daily Caller News Foundation alleges that Elaine Chao, wife of outgoing Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, held multiple positions tied to Chinese government entities and Communist Party-linked organizations while simultaneously serving in senior U.S. Cabinet roles.
According to the report, Chao — whose birth name is Zhao Xiaolan — received at least four appointments from Chinese government bodies since 2008, including within arms of the United Front Work Department (UFWD). The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission describes the UFWD as an instrument Beijing uses to steer foreign policy and gain access to advanced foreign technology.
Chao married McConnell in 1993 and has held major U.S. government posts since the 1980s. She served as Secretary of Labor throughout President George W. Bush’s administration and as Secretary of Transportation during President Trump’s first term, resigning in January 2021. She later sat on the board of EV charging company ChargePoint from 2021 to 2026 and currently holds a fellowship at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C.
The Daily Caller’s reporting, based on translations of Chinese government and state media documents, claims some of these Chinese appointments overlapped with her time in the U.S. Cabinet. The report also states that Chao did not disclose any of the alleged Chinese government positions during her January 2017 Senate confirmation hearing for the Transportation post, a hearing that required her to list all positions held over the previous decade.
If the report’s account of that omission holds up, it raises a straightforward question for lawmakers and voters alike: why weren’t these positions included in her confirmation paperwork, given the nature of the organizations named.
McConnell’s office declined to comment on the report. A spokesman for Chao issued a strong denial, saying she never held a position with a foreign government or acted on behalf of one.
The allegations arrive amid broader, longstanding concern in Washington about Chinese Communist Party influence operations reaching into the highest levels of American government, concerns that predate this report and have touched other members of Congress in years past.
No further comment has been issued by either McConnell or Chao beyond the denial noted above.
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