Is it a coincidence that McConnell is stepping down as Senate minority leader?
On Feb. 12, 50-year-old Angela Chao was found dead in her Tesla that was submerged in a pond on private property in Blanco County, Texas, according to the incident report from fire department EMS personnel. Ms. Chao was the sixth and youngest daughter of Chinese-American shipping magnate Dr. James Si-Cheng Chao, who founded the New York-headquartered Foremost Group in 1964. Angela had been CEO of the company since 2018 and was a founding member of The Asian American Foundation.
On Feb. 28, 82-year-old Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced his intention to step down from his leadership position in November.
Angela Chao was the sister-in-law of Mitch McConnell, and speculation has been rife about these two seemingly unrelated events. Is there any connection other than familial? Let us examine the topic.
Angela Chao
Angela Chao lived in Austin, Texas, and “served on the boards of American and Chinese groups, including the American Bureau of Shipping Council, the Bank of China, and a holding company for China State Shipbuilding,” MSN reported. Her connections to China loom large, particularly in her capacity as the former chair of the U.S. Risk and Management Committee of Bank of China USA, a director of the holding company for state-run China State Shipbuilding, and a former vice chair of the Council of China’s Foreign Trade. China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) builds ships for the People’s Liberation Army-Navy while the Council of China’s Foreign Trade is a promotional group created by Beijing to facilitate Chinese trade worldwide. Why did the CCP place such trust in Angela Chao?
Her father maintained connections to Chinese communists at the highest levels. As noted here, he “cultivated a close relationship with Jiang Zemin, a former schoolmate from Shanghai” who later became the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and the fifth communist leader of China from 1993–2003. The rise of the Foremost Group mirrored the rise of Jiang in the CCP hierarchy. There are no such things as coincidences.
Lastly, according to China Insights, the Chao family “is known in overseas Chinese circles as ‘The First Chinese American Family,’” with James Chao known as the “Chinese Ship King.” That moniker was well-earned.
Mitch McConnell
Mr. McConnell will step down in November as the longest-serving party leader ever in the U.S. Senate. He was first elected to the Senate in 1985 and rose to Republican minority leader in 2007 and later majority leader in 2015 before reverting to minority leader in 2021. He married his second wife, Elaine Chao, in February 1993. Together, they became an important political power couple in Washington, with Ms. Chao having served as U.S. Secretary of Labor from 2001–2009 and Secretary of Transportation from 2017–2021.
In his 2018 book “Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends,” investigative journalist Peter Schweizer noted that Mr. McConnell had hardline positions on communist China before his marriage to Ms. Chao. That seemed to change just a year after their marriage, and in 1994, he was invited by China State Shipbuilding Corporation (!) to meet then-Party leader Jiang Zemin and Vice Premier Li Lanqing as arranged by Ms. Chao’s father, James. As reported by the New York Post, Mr. Schweizer maintained in his book that Mr. McConnell “would increasingly avoid public criticism of China” as additional meetings and visits were conducted over the years. Perhaps that shift was facilitated by a multimillion-dollar “gift” from James Chao to Mitch and Elaine in 2008 that increased Mr. McConnell’s net worth nearly 10-fold.
By Stu Cvrk
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