Elaine Chao

In 2005, Chao was given the "Woman of Valor" award by the conservative group Independent Women's Forum (IWF), which says it was founded "to provide American women with commonsense views, intellectual honesty, and respect for the principles of limited government, strong families, freedom, and opportunity." Emeritae members of the IWF board include neoconservative grand dame Midge Decter (who is married to Norman Podhoretz) and Lynne Cheney (who is married to Vice President Dick Cheney). Members of the IWF's Honorary Host Committee included then-Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), former Rep. Chris Cox (R-CA), Chao's husband, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and other conservative figures. IWF also lists Chao as a member of its National Advisory Board, along with Linda Chavez.

During her stint at Heritage, Chao reportedly pushed the conservative organization to view China as a prime economic prospect rather than as a threatening U.S. competitor. In an Asia Times article on the Bush administration's confusing China policies, Tim Shorrock draws on a John Judis piece in the New Republic that explored Heritage's about-face in China policy. "The article by John B. Judis focuses on Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, a former Heritage Foundation fellow, and her husband, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell. Chao, according to Judis, came from a wealthy shipping family based in Taiwan that expanded in part through a relationship between Chao's father and Chinese leader Jiang Zemin. As a senior Heritage official, the article claims, Chao helped push out former Reagan aide Richard V. Allen and presided over a policy shift that transformed Heritage from a hardline supporter of Taiwan into a promoter of economic engagement with China" (Asia Times, April 26, 2001).

Chao appears to have continued championing this view of China policy since joining the Bush administration. During a December 2006 high-level meeting on economic policy in China between U.S. and Chinese officials, Chao seems to have been a moderate member of the U.S. delegation. While some U.S. officials attending the meeting stressed Chinese intransigence in reforming its economic model, Chao repeatedly underscored the challenges facing Beijing, arguing that it was important to understand that China views its progress in terms of its own history, and not according to U.S. standards. "They're looking at it from a relative point of view," she said. "We're looking at it, obviously, from the absolute comparative basis" (New York Times, December 14, 2006). She also stressed that despite disagreements with their Chinese counterparts, members of the U.S. delegation strived to show that the United States "has a very interested stake in China's economic well-being" (Washington Post, December 15, 2006).

Commenting on the apparent trend of some right-wing thinkers and think tanks to abandon the idea of China as a total enemy in favor of the view that it is acceptable to do business with Beijing, Michael Rust of the conservative Insight on the News wrote, "Osama bin Laden dipped into his huge fortune to recruit, train, and transport suicide bombers into the heart of American power. Maybe he should just have used the money to start a Washington think tank instead" (November 19, 2001).

Chao's husband, Sen. Mitch McConnell, was the Senate Majority Whip until the Democrats retook power. McConnell supported the Bush administration's nuclear deal with India, and is known as the "Darth Vader of campaign finance reform" for his rabid opposition to such reforms (U.S. News & World Report, May 19, 2003).

Government Service

Private Sector

Education

Department of Labor, Biography of Elaine Chao, http://www.dol.gov/_sec/aboutosec/chao.htm.

Rebecca Hagelin, "Elaine Chao is Looking out for You!" Heritage Foundation, October 8, 2004, http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed100804c.cfm.

Independent Women's Forum, National Advisory Board list, http://www.iwf.org/about_iwf/nationaladvisoryboard.asp.

Independent Women's Forum, event invitation, May 2005, http://www.iwf.org/pdf/dinner05_invite.pdf.

Tim Shorrock, "Bush's China Policies Confuse Conservatives, Liberals," Asia Times Online, April 26, 2001.

John Judis, "Sullied Heritage: The Decline of Principled Conservative Hostility to China," New Republic, April 23, 2001.

Steven Weisman, "U.S. Hits Resistance at Economic Talks in China," New York Times, December 14, 2006.

Ariana Euniung Cha, "U.S., China Clash on Currency," Washington Post, December 15, 2006.

Michael Rust, "Who Bought Off the Think Tanks?" Insight on the News, November 19, 2001.

Steven Weisman, "U.S. Hits Resistance at Economic Talks in China," New York Times, December 14, 2006.

Ariana Euniung Cha, "U.S., China Clash on Currency," Washington Post, December 15, 2006.

Angie Cannon, "The 'Darth Vader' of Reform," U.S. News & World Report, May 19, 2003.

For media inquiries, email rightweb@publiceye.org or call (617) 666-5300.