An investigation published by the Daily Caller News Foundation raises questions about whether a former American cabinet secretary simultaneously held advisory positions tied to the Chinese Communist Party’s influence apparatus. The report is built on translations of Chinese government and state media documents and centers on Elaine Chao, the wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and a two-time cabinet secretary. Chao’s spokesman strongly denies the findings. The story matters because it goes to a question that outlasts any single administration: whether officials with access to the highest levels of American government carried undisclosed obligations to a foreign power.

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From the Daily Caller: 

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.

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.

“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.”

Chao, whose Chinese name is Zhao Xiaolan, was born in Taiwan and became a U.S. citizen at 19. She served as secretary of labor throughout President George W. Bush’s tenure and as secretary of transportation during President Donald Trump’s first term, resigning in January 2021. She later sat on the board of the EV charging company ChargePoint and is now listed as a distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute. She married McConnell in 1993.

The DCNF reports that Chao received at least four Chinese government positions since 2008, including roles within arms of the United Front Work Department, the CCP organ that the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission says Beijing uses to steer foreign policy and acquire advanced foreign technology. The reported appointments include an advisory and committee role with the Jiading branch of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese between 2012 and 2017, honorary chairmanships with the Jiading branch of the China Overseas Friendship Association beginning in December 2008, and a Wuhan municipal government international advisor post in October 2009. Portions of those tenures overlapped with her time as labor and transportation secretary. Her father, Foremost Group founder James S.C. Chao, and her late sister Angela Chao also received Chinese government and United Front affiliated positions, according to the report.

The report traces early contact to a 2004 Christmas card Chao received from two Jiading United Front entities while serving as labor secretary, to which she reportedly replied with a handwritten note and autographed photo. It also cites a 2008 visit to Jiading after she led a U.S. delegation to the Beijing Olympics, and a 2010 state media interview in which her father said the two of them both served as Wuhan government advisors. Chao’s spokesman, Patrick O’Connor, disputed the characterization of the roles, describing them as honorary titles and recognitions typical of a long public career for which she was often photographed with local officials. He said she was unaware of the Wuhan title in part because she is not fluent in Chinese, though the DCNF notes that account differs from contemporaneous state media reporting. O’Connor also rejected the premise of the inquiry, calling insinuations about a two-time cabinet secretary of Asian descent suspicious and asserting a double standard, and said any suggestion she acted on behalf of a foreign government disregards nearly five decades of service to the United States.

Questions about Chao’s Chinese government ties first surfaced as early as 2001 following her labor secretary nomination and resurfaced after McConnell was hospitalized in June 2026 while Chao was visiting China. McConnell’s office declined to comment. Several China and counterintelligence specialists told the DCNF that accepting such positions would be disqualifying for any senior official, with former Royal Canadian Mounted Police intelligence official Scott McGregor arguing the concern is not merely optical but a governance and sovereignty question, and that the affiliation itself, not a proven exchange of favors, creates the vulnerability. The allegations remain unproven, and no enforcement action or formal finding against Chao has been announced. Chao has not been charged with any crime.

Scripture is clear that leaders are accountable for what they conceal as well as what they do, and that God’s people are to be sober-minded about the influence of foreign powers. The United Front apparatus exists for a purpose, and Americans of every party should be able to ask whether their officials carried undisclosed foreign obligations without the question being waved away. At the same time, fairness matters here too. Chao has not been charged, the reported positions were described by her spokesman as honorary honors, and Christians should insist on evidence rather than insinuation, including in cases involving public figures of any background. Both truths can hold at once. Pray for McConnell’s recovery, for candid answers where answers are owed, and for a government that guards the public trust it has been given.

Let us pray for clarity and honesty in our government, for the protection of our nation from foreign influence, and for Sen. Mitch McConnell’s recovery.

How are you praying about this issue? Share your prayers and scriptures in the comments below.

(Excerpt from the Daily Caller. Photo Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=Elaine+Chao&title=Special%3AMediaSearch&type=image).