Former Cabinet secretary Elaine Chao, the wife of Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, has for decades returned to a Shanghai kindergarten where she has repeatedly met with officials from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the United Front Work Department (UFWD), an influence and intelligence arm, according to Daily Caller News Foundation translations of dozens of Chinese government and state-media reports.
On June 14, 2026, Chao attended the school’s graduation, where a kindergarten play depicted Red Army soldiers pausing to mourn a child soldier who had starved to death in a marsh during the Long March. Hours later, McConnell was rushed to a hospital on the other side of the globe.
The kindergarten, named for Chao’s grandfather, is being used by a United Front arm as a stage to cultivate ties with Chao, documents show. The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission says Beijing uses the UFWD to steer foreign policy and gain access to advanced foreign technology.
Chao, whose Chinese name is Zhao Xiaolan, has received at least four Chinese government positions since 2008, including a Wuhan municipal advisory post and roles within the China Overseas Friendship Association and the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, both UFWD arms, the DCNF reported. Three of those positions partially overlapped with her service as labor secretary under President George W. Bush and/or transportation secretary during President Trump’s first term.
The family’s ties to the school date to 1995, when Chao’s father, Foremost Group founder James S.C. Chao, donated $100,000. The school was then renamed for his father, Zhao Yiren.
In 2014, the kindergarten signed a “co-construction” agreement with the Jiading branch of the Zhigong Party, a United Front organization, at a ceremony overseen by a local UFWD official. Days later, students sang the Zhigong-composed anthem “Yiren One Family” for Chao as she toured the school alongside CCP and Zhigong officials. In 2015, the Chao family gave the school $161,290, and Chao told state media, “we are still Chinese.”
In 2019, a UFWD report praised the Zhigong branch, listing as its top accomplishment “maintaining long-term ties with Zhao Xiaolan’s family.” The approach even had a name: “Small Pairing, Big Politics.” It remains unclear how much the Chao family knew about Zhigong’s operations.
The school has also hosted military-themed activities, some led by People’s Liberation Army personnel. In September 2025, children up to 3 years old wielded toy rifles and grenades in games such as “Dodging Bombs.” At a 2019 graduation, camouflage-clad kindergarteners performed the CCP propaganda song “Little Navy Sailor.”
Chao’s spokesperson, Patrick O’Connor, denied she “held a position with a foreign government” and said, “We are not aware she has met with representatives of UFWD entities.” He called the suggestion “unfounded and deeply insulting, hurtful and racist,” adding that Chao visited to honor her father’s connection to the school, which he said is recognized as one of the best in the region.
Geopolitical analyst Brandon Weichert told the DCNF the relationship shows how China aims to defeat the U.S. “without ever firing a shot.”
“We are on the slow, but steady path of being absorbed in China’s new empire without so much as any understanding that this is underway,” Weichert warned.
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