Ms. Chao broke with the standard practice for government employees and flew on a Chinese state airline instead of an American carrier.As civil war raged across the country in the 1940s, Mr. Chao attended Jiao Tong University in Shanghai. As transportation secretary, Elaine Chao is the top Trump official overseeing the maritime industry. They embody the American dream, and my parents inspired all their daughters to give back to this country we love.”Over the next 30 years, the extended Chao family would be an important source of political cash for Mr. McConnell, himself one of the most formidable Republican fund-raisers in American politics.Her efforts on behalf of the family business — appearing at promotional events, joining her father in interviews with Chinese-language media — have come as Foremost has interacted with the Chinese state to a remarkable degree for an American company.And he attended the dedication in 2016 of a building at the Harvard Business School named after Ms. Chao’s mother. (In China, Ms. Chao’s family has paid for scholarships and a ship simulator to train Chinese seamen. There, in the reception area, were two gray pillows emblazoned with the seal of the United States Senate.The Times found that the Chaos had an extraordinary proximity to power in China for an American family, marked not only by board memberships in state companies, but also by multiple meetings with the country’s former top leader, including one at his villa. Ms. Chao and three of her sisters had attended the school.Ms. The company is currently run by her father and sister, according to the company’s website. At the launch ceremony in Shanghai in 2010, the guest of honor was Ms. Chao.
The trip was abruptly canceled by Ms. Chao after the ethics question was referred to officials in the State and Transportation Departments and, separately, after The New York Times and others made inquiries about her itinerary and companions.Ms. A gift to Ms. Chao and Mr. McConnell from her father in 2008 helped make Mr. McConnell, the Republican majority leader, one of the richest members of the Senate.
But she said she was unaware of her sister’s travel plans. “They are not a big part of our financing,” she said.Elaine Chao has boosted the profile of her family’s shipping company, which benefits from industrial policies in China that are roiling the Trump administration.But the embassy in Beijing had received requests to accommodate Ms. Chao’s family members, according to interviews with State Department officials involved in the planning, as well as a redacted email obtained by The Times through a public records lawsuit.Today, Foremost’s fleet, like many, primarily serves the Chinese market, hauling bulk cargo such as iron ore, coal and bauxite. “The trade routes are completely different; the ships are completely different.”The family’s other business ties in China remained, including work that year by China State Shipbuilding on two new cargo ships for Foremost.In 1989, shortly after their first date (at the Saudi ambassador’s home near Washington), Mr. McConnell was preparing for a re-election campaign. Satellite imagery: Google EarthForemost, though a relatively small company in its sector, is responsible for a large portion of orders at one of China’s biggest state-funded shipyards, and has secured long-term charters with a Chinese state-owned steel maker as well as global commodity companies that guarantee it steady revenues.The move to notify Washington was unusual and a sign of how concerned members of the State Department were, said the official, who was not authorized to speak on behalf of the agency.Agency officials said the department under Ms. Chao had been a champion of the American maritime industry, adding that several proposed cuts had been made by previous administrations and that the Trump administration had since moved to bolster funding.It is here, at the Shanghai Waigaoqiao shipyard, that Foremost Group’s newest ship, the Xin May, was built. Greetings from Ms. Chao came in classic Washington fashion: a string of campaign donations, totaling $10,000, from Ms. Chao, her father, her mother, her sister May and May’s husband, Jeffrey Hwang, according to Federal Election Commission records.“I’m of an age where I have seen two wars in pivotal areas of the world,” she told the Senate Commerce Committee, with her father seated behind her. She denied that the company had a “China focus” beyond what most dry bulk carriers have in a world dominated by Chinese manufacturing.
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