The Last Chance Of Freedom : Mitch McConnell And Elaine Chao Spent Decades Getting ‘Rich On China’

Thursday, August 25, 2022

For years, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his wife Elaine Chao have maintained a glaring conflict of interest, conducting extensive government business despite the Chao family's deep ties to China through a maritime shipping company.
Former President Donald Trump is calling attention to the top Republican's problematic China ties, while most of Washington remains silent.

Even though the Trump administration took a hardline stance against China and its intent to compete with the U.S., the Chao family company proceeded with the purchase of 10 new ships from the Chinese government
This strategic buy expanded the Foremost fleet capacity by more than 40 percent, enabling the company to do even more business with the CCP
It was under Chao's leadership that the Department of Transportation proposed budget cuts for programs meant to stimulate American shipping and mariners

Not only do McConnell and Chao's family members financially benefit from doing business with communist China, but so have McConnell and his wife and son.
The political duo may not have a formal stake in the Chao shipping empire, but they have certainly amassed wealth from the business
In 2008, McConnell received a "gift" of $5 to $25 million from his father-in-law which could have been money designed to keep a favorable relationship between McConnell and the Chao family.

Despite avoiding U.S. press appearances in her capacity as transportation secretary, Chao joined her father for dozens of appearances on Chinese and Chinese-American television where she regularly boosted Foremost and the work her family does out of China.
She granted her China-sympathetic family access to the president of the United States, a political connection that her father coveted and later boasted about in interviews, sometimes with communist state-owned media.

It wasn't until 2017, decades after McConnell and Chao began to benefit from their family's ties to China, that the House Committee on Oversight and Reform sent a letter to Chao demanding that she explain her public elevation of her family's maritime company.
In 2021, months after she resigned from the Trump administration, the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Transportation released a report confirming that Chao "used her official position and taxpayer resources for the benefit of herself and her family."
Evidence of wrongdoing in the OIG report was communicated in a criminal referral to the DOJ Public Integrity Section, but none of the agencies decided to open an investigation.