Communist China’s influence operations reach further into Washington, DC than most Americans realize.
And now a bombshell investigation has pulled back the curtain on one of the most connected couples in Republican establishment history.
Because new reporting reveals that Elaine Chao, the wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), hid one secret that had everyone screaming treason.
What the Daily Caller News Foundation Unearthed
The Daily Caller News Foundation dug through Chinese government and state media reports and came back with findings that raise serious national security questions about a woman who served at the highest levels of the American executive branch for years.
Chao — whose Chinese name is Zhao Xiaolan — has held numerous US government positions since the 1980s. She served as Department of Labor (DOL) secretary throughout President George W. Bush’s entire tenure and then as Department of Transportation (DOT) secretary during President Donald Trump’s first term. She married McConnell in 1993.
According to the DCNF’s translations of Chinese government and state media reports, Chao 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).
The UFWD is not a ceremonial body. It is an instrument of the Chinese Communist Party specifically designed to extend Beijing’s reach into foreign governments, diaspora communities, and institutions abroad.
The Jiading branch of the UFWD’s China Overseas Friendship Association (COFA) reportedly appointed both Chao and her father — whose Chinese name is Zhao Xicheng — as honorary chairmen of its 3rd council in December 2008, according to a DCNF translation of a state media report. At that point, Chao was still serving as DOL secretary under President Bush.
Chinese reports later identified Chao and her father as advisers to COFA’s fourth council, which reportedly ran from 2012 through 2017. That period partially overlapped with her opening months as President Trump’s Transportation secretary.
Chao was also reportedly named an adviser and committee member of the fifth council of the Jiading branch of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFORC), another UFWD-linked organization. That appointment allegedly ran from September 2012 through 2017 — again running into the early portion of her DOT tenure.
A CCP official also reportedly appointed Chao as an international adviser to the Wuhan municipal government in October 2009, according to the DCNF. Chinese state media claimed the appointment was based on Chao’s international experience and her perceived ability to help Wuhan attract overseas talent and improve its foreign relations.
By 2019, Chao’s sister Angela reportedly became director of COFA’s national organization.
She Reportedly Said Nothing About It at Her Confirmation Hearing
Perhaps the most damaging detail in the entire investigation is what Chao allegedly did not say.
The DCNF reported that Chao failed to disclose any of the reported Chinese government positions during her January 2017 Senate confirmation hearing for Transportation secretary — even though nominees are required to provide information about positions held during the preceding ten years.
That is not a minor paperwork oversight. If the DCNF’s findings are accurate, Chao sat before the United States Senate and answered questions about her background while leaving out alleged ties to organizations that operate as arms of a foreign intelligence and influence apparatus.
Questions about Chao’s Chinese government ties actually first arose as early as 2001, following her DOL nomination. They resurfaced recently after McConnell was hospitalized in June 2026 while Chao was visiting China. McConnell’s office declined to comment on the DCNF’s investigation.
After resigning from the Trump administration in January 2021, Chao served on the board of EV charging company ChargePoint between 2021 and 2026. She is now listed as a distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit.
Experts Say This Goes Far Beyond Optics
The response from Chao’s spokesman was swift — and revealing in its own way.
Patrick O’Connor, spokesman for Chao and Foremost Group, denied that Chao, her sister, or her father had held such positions. “She has never held a position with a foreign government or acted on behalf of one,” O’Connor said. “We are not aware she has met with representatives from UFWD entities.”
That denial came after O’Connor was sent Chinese government and state media photos published between 2010 and 2026 showing Chao meeting with officials from the CCP and/or UFWD.
When the DCNF asked why Chao considers it “racist” to investigate her ties to the Chinese government, O’Connor said: “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 also 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.”
Calling a national security investigation racist is a deflection, not an answer.
Jacqueline Deal, an advisory board member of State Armor, a nonprofit focused on countering what it describes as “the threat of Communist China,” reviewed the DCNF’s findings and was unsparing. Chao’s United Front connections “should be disqualifying for dogcatcher, much less a Cabinet position,” Deal said. She went further: “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.”
Gordon Chang, China expert and author, told the DCNF: “No American, no matter how high and mighty, should have any ties with the Communist Party’s UFWD.” Chang added: “This organization is dedicated to destroying our country. This should not be hard to understand.”
Scott McGregor, a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police intelligence official, put it in counterintelligence terms. “This is not merely a matter of political optics or an abstract conflict-of-interest concern,” McGregor said. “It is a counterintelligence, governance and sovereignty issue.” He continued: “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.”
What This Tells You About the Washington Establishment
Mitch McConnell spent decades as the most powerful Republican in the United States Senate. He controlled the legislative calendar, shaped judicial confirmations, and positioned himself as a bulwark of the conservative movement — while his wife reportedly held appointments inside organizations that answer to the Chinese Communist Party.
That is a question worth sitting with for a moment.
Communist China’s primary strategic goal is the long-term displacement of American power. The UFWD specifically exists to cultivate relationships with influential figures in Western governments and institutions — not to exchange pleasantries, but to gather leverage, shape policy, and extend Beijing’s reach into places it cannot reach through official channels.
And the establishment Republican who spent years blocking America First priorities, who voted to convict President Trump after the partisan January 6 impeachment proceedings, who dismissed concerns about Communist China’s trade practices as protectionism — his wife allegedly held positions inside that apparatus, some of them reportedly while she was simultaneously serving as a US Cabinet secretary.
The family business connection makes the picture even harder to wave away. Foremost Group, the shipping company founded by Chao’s father, has operated extensively in Communist China for decades. The Federalist noted that a majority of Foremost’s ships are built in state-owned Chinese shipyards, with some reportedly financed by the Chinese Communist Party itself. Deal’s point about the maritime industrial base is not a theoretical complaint. American shipbuilding capacity has eroded for years, and Foremost has been positioned to benefit from the same policy environment that enabled that erosion.
None of this has been proven in a court of law, and Chao’s spokesman flatly denies the characterizations. But the photographs exist. The Chinese government and state media reports exist. The timeline of appointments overlapping with Cabinet service exists. And the failure to disclose at a Senate confirmation hearing — if the DCNF’s account holds up — is not something that can be explained away with a charge of racism.
Washington has a long and well-documented habit of treating its own with extraordinary deference. The same institutions that spent years investigating every associate of Donald Trump have shown little urgency about the kinds of foreign entanglements that exist right inside the Republican establishment’s most prominent household.
Americans who sent Trump back to Washington in 2024 did so precisely because they understood that the permanent political class — Republican and Democrat alike — has operated for decades in ways that serve its own interests rather than the country’s. This story is not an anomaly. It is an illustration of exactly the problem voters were trying to correct.
The question now is whether anyone in a position of authority will treat this with the seriousness that Scott McGregor, Gordon Chang, and Jacqueline Deal say it deserves — or whether the machinery of Washington will do what it usually does and quietly let it disappear.
Source: Daily Caller News Foundation, “EXCLUSIVE: Mitch McConnell’s Wife Elaine Chao Held Appointments From Chinese Communist Party Organizations While Serving In Cabinet,” September 8, 2026, by Philip Lenczycki
