In December 2008, while Elaine Chao was serving as Secretary of Labor under President George W. Bush, the China Overseas Friendship Association's Jiading branch appointed her honorary chairman of its 3rd council. COFA operates under the Chinese Communist Party's United Front Work Department — the CCP's primary influence and intelligence apparatus targeting foreign governments.
She didn't mention it during her next Senate confirmation hearing.
Translations of Chinese government and state media records documenting at least four CCP-linked positions Chao held between 2008 and 2017. The organizations involved — the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese and the China Overseas Friendship Association — both operate under the United Front Work Department, which the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has identified as a key instrument of CCP foreign influence operations.
The timeline is specific. In December 2008, while still at the Department of Labor, Chao received the COFA honorary chairmanship. In October 2009, she was appointed an international advisor to the Wuhan municipal government. In September 2012, she was named advisor and committee member of the 5th council of ACFROC's Jiading branch and advisor to COFA Jiading's 4th council. Those last two positions ran through 2017 — overlapping directly with her tenure as Secretary of Transportation under President Trump.
In January 2017, when Chao sat before the Senate for her DOT confirmation hearing — a process that required listing all positions held within the prior ten years — she did not disclose any of the Chinese government appointments.
Chao's spokesman Patrick O'Connor responded by saying, "She has never held a position with a foreign government or acted on behalf of one." He added that "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 Chinese government's own records appear to disagree with that characterization.
Gordon Chang, a widely cited China expert and author, was direct: "No American, no matter how high and mighty, should have any ties with the Communist Party's UFWD." Cheryl Yu of the Jamestown Foundation described ACFROC's function as one that "recruits prominent diaspora figures, including businesspeople, lawyers, academics, media figures and leaders." That's not a cultural exchange program. That's a talent acquisition pipeline.
The family connections run deeper. Chao's father, James S.C. Chao — founder of the Foremost Group shipping firm — confirmed the arrangement himself. In a May 2010 Chinese-language media interview, the elder Chao stated, "In fact, Xiaolan and I are both advisors to the municipal government of Wuhan." Xiaolan is Elaine Chao's Chinese name. Chao's late sister Angela also received positions from Chinese government and UFWD-linked entities, according to the same reporting.
Ina Mitchell, a Chinese intelligence expert, explained that "COFA advances CCP objectives through soft power by using relationship-building, cultural diplomacy and people-to-people exchanges rather than coercion." Former Royal Canadian Mounted Police intelligence official Scott McGregor went further: "This is not merely a matter of political optics...It is a counterintelligence, governance and sovereignty issue."
Chao, who is 73, was born in Taiwan, obtained U.S. citizenship at age 19, and married Senator Mitch McConnell in 1993. She resigned from the Trump administration in January 2021. As recently as July 2026, she visited China. She is currently listed as a distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute.
During an August 2008 visit to Jiading — her father's birthplace in Shanghai — Chao told attendees, "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." Chinese state media documented the visit, including meetings with four district officials. The COFA appointment came four months later.
Cultural roots are one thing. Advisory positions within the CCP's intelligence and influence infrastructure, held concurrently with U.S. Cabinet service and omitted from a Senate confirmation disclosure — that's a different category entirely.