elaine chao father shipping company

“What troubles me about [Secretary Chao’s actions] is perhaps it may appear that a person in her situation is using her office and her position in order to publicize her father’s book, or this book about her family,” Callaghan said. Hana Callaghan, director of government ethics at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, said since public officials “have a duty to maintain and preserve trust in government,” they are obligated “to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.”. The Foremost Group was founded by James Chao, an immigrant from Taiwan, in 1964. According to DOT spokespeople, Secretary Chao’s father and sister were not present at the gathering. Missing out on the latest scoops? “Many people in the transportation industry wanted her to become the secretary of transportation,” James Chao said in the interview, which occurred during the presidential transition period. Claim: Before Trump nominated Elaine Chao as transportation secretary, the Columbian Coast Guard caught her father operating a cargo ship with 90 pounds of cocaine on board with millions of dollars Before Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, it had 23 registered ships but since then has added 10 — more than a 40 percent increase in capacity — according to IHS Global ship registry information. In many of the videos, James Chao is introduced as founder and chairman of the Foremost Group shipping company, and, in discussing a 2016 biography about his life, speaks proudly of his daughter’s role as secretary of transportation, as she sits beaming by his side. Fifty-five years later it is an international giant worth hundreds of millions of … “Doing business in China requires a lot of connections,” said Diane Wei Liang, an author and a commentator on Chinese business, politics and culture. The spokespeople also rejected any suggestions of impropriety, insisting that the party was in the same vein as other ethnic celebrations the agency typically hosts, such as Asian-Pacific Heritage Month and Hispanic Heritage Month. | POLITICO screenshot. “She needs to be careful when she appears that, say, the seal of the Department of Transportation doesn’t appear on the screen,” said Kathleen Clark, a government and legal ethics expert at the Washington University School of Law. “In China, business, politics, everything is connected,” she said. “We were talking about business.”. You can unsubscribe at any time. Elaine Chao, the transportation secretary, has been a steadfast booster of her family’s shipping business, which transports raw materials to fuel … “While my other daughters started working at my company after they graduated from college, Elaine did so while she was still at school, during summer breaks,” Chao said. “A kind of nepotism. DOT spokespeople declined to comment on how much government funding was spent on the party, a business-attire affair that included Chinese food and for which many guests traveled from New York City and beyond. They said the guest list was developed with input from the DOT Management Office, the DOT Asian-Pacific American Employees Council, and the White House Presidential Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. In an interview without Elaine Chao present, posted on Angela Chao’s YouTube channel, James Chao spoke to a Sinovision reporter in the Foremost Group corporate office in New York about how proud he was of Elaine’s nomination to be secretary of transportation. But, to Liang, it still conveyed a message of what she calls the Chaos’ “connectability.”. “She needs to be careful when she appears that, say, the seal of the Department of Transportation doesn’t appear on the screen,” said one expert about Elaine Chao’s media appearances with her father, James. Did Elaine Chao’s DOT interviews help her family’s business? The spokesperson suggested Chao is simply meeting the high demand from Asian media outlets for interviews with her, because she is the first Chinese-American, and the first Asian-American woman, to hold a U.S. Any business that can demonstrate these kinds of connections sends a very positive message as to how successful the business is and how effective it would be to work with them.”. In the interview with Shanghai Media Group, James Chao spoke about his “amazing life journey” and “the secrets of raising outstanding children,” in the words of the interviewer, and Elaine Chao depicted her own success as “a milestone for Asian-Americans.” The interviewer noted that during her confirmation hearing, senators sent regards to her father when questioning her. One interview with New China Press published on April 12, 2017, features the pair sitting in what appears to be the Department of Transportation, with DOT flags in view behind the interviewer. “Political connections are normally considered as real advantages for business people. In at least a dozen interviews with Chinese and Chinese-American media outlets since her nomination, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has appeared beside her shipping magnate father, whose company carries goods between the United States and Asia, and who has given Chao and her husband at least $5 million in the past 10 years. That means they shouldn’t “promote one business over another,” she said. In one video, which appears to have been made as a Lunar New Year greeting, a seated James appears with Elaine and Angela to wish viewers a “happy, healthy, safe and successful new year in the upcoming Year of the Dog.”, Experts in government ethics said Elaine Chao’s media appearances with her father might violate a regulation that prohibits federal employees from using their public office for their “own private gain, for the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise, or for the private gain of friends, relatives, or persons with whom the employee is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity.”. “The president spent several minutes with me,” James Chao said. DOT spokespeople added that James Chao does not receive any royalties from the sales of his biography. In many of the video interviews at his daughter’s side, James Chao talks with pride about her government work and contacts. In one brief video clip from May 2017 that appears to have been filmed at DOT, James Chao is the only one who speaks, entirely in Chinese. In at least a dozen interviews with Chinese and Chinese-American media outlets since her nomination, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has appeared beside her shipping magnate father… I’m not talking just about the hiring of relatives, but bringing relatives in or acting in a way that could enrich relatives — we’ve seen this in the White House; we’ve seen this at Housing and Urban Development and now … at the Department of Transportation.”. Claim: Ninety pounds of cocaine was found on a boat owned by Mitch McConnell's family and that they are “financing his Senate campaigns with their cocaine drug profits.” Long portions of the interview are in Chinese, with James Chao talking about his life story, with a copy of his biography on the screen, and Elaine Chao extolling her father’s success story as “lifting the status of Asian-Americans in America.” She also touts his $40 million gift to Harvard University. “She and her family are the focus of [Asian-American] human interest pieces in print and broadcast media,” the spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao requested to hold “alarmingly inappropriate” meetings with members of her family—which runs an American shipping company—and Chinese government officials, an investigation by The New York Times shows https://t.co/kzXOwlWAPN — Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) June 10, 2019 As secretary, Elaine Chao maintains a tight control on inside-the-Beltway media appearances. But what’s special about it was that she came to the office consistently and handled a very big project during the summer. The articles are motivational and not promotional in any form.”, “There is nothing inappropriate with a Cabinet member appearing with her father or other family members,” the spokesperson added. China’s schooling Trump on the art of the delay, Trump team makes the midterms about saving his presidency, Adelsons pour $75M into last-ditch effort to save Trump, Trump threatens ‘big lawsuit’ after Twitter briefly locks campaign account, Trump town hall sparks behind-the-scenes fury at NBC, Harris cancels travel after Biden campaign announces positive Covid tests, Poll: Graham leads Harrison in South Carolina Senate race. Not only do the DOT flags appear prominently in the New China Press interview and several other interviews, the state flag of Kentucky appears in at least one, which points up her connection to her powerful husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Nonetheless, specialists in Chinese and Asian business practices say that having the owner of a family shipping business seated next to a daughter who is U.S. secretary of transportation sends a message that Foremost Group has high-level government connections — an important credential in China. Clark, the ethics professor, said Chao’s behavior appears “consistent with other things we’ve seen in the Trump administration, with the blurring of the public/private line, the exploitation of a government authority to promote the enterprise of a family member.”, “There’s a through line from the White House,” said Clark. Through Foremost Group’s public relations firm, Angela Chao declined multiple requests for comment. The transportation secretary appears with her father, founder of the family shipping business, in Chinese-language interviews with the DOT emblem behind them. “I talk about my father a lot and my family a lot, and they admire my family tremendously,” Elaine Chao said. In other appearances filmed since her confirmation as secretary, Chao appears beside her father, calling her parents “trailblazers” and praising their philanthropy, the way they taught their children to set and achieve goals, and the courage they displayed during their harrowing migration to the United States. She was elected to the board before Elaine Chao was nominated to head DOT. James Chao, in the videos, cites Elaine’s work as a college student helping to build up the business. Foremost Group, the New York-based shipping company founded by Mr. Chao in 1964, landed its first big contract with the United States government, shipping rice to …

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