“The president spent several minutes with me,” James Chao 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.”. 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. 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. A daily speed read on transportation and infrastructure — in your inbox. “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 many of the video interviews at his daughter’s side, James Chao talks with pride about her government work and contacts. It is available only in Chinese. 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. 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 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. 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. By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. Fifty-five years later it is an international giant worth hundreds of millions of … | POLITICO screenshot. It celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2014, but is now appears to be engaging in a brisk period of expansion. The Foremost Group was founded by James Chao, an immigrant from Taiwan, in 1964. 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. 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. “My company was rather small then. Missing out on the latest scoops? 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. But, to Liang, it still conveyed a message of what she calls the Chaos’ “connectability.”. 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.”. The Chao family’s connections to the Chinese-American community were also on display in February, when Secretary Chao used the multi-level atrium of the relatively new DOT headquarters building — a large entertainment space — to host a Lunar New Year party for more than 400 guests, according to a list of scheduled attendees. “The secretary’s appearances are intended to share an inspirational story about immigrants from a minority community who have become successful in our country.”. Elaine Chao, the transportation secretary, has been a steadfast booster of her family’s shipping business, which transports raw materials to fuel … 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. 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… He introduces himself as the chairman of Foremost Group and says, “I bring my daughter, Elaine Chao, along with the rest of my family” to congratulate Jiangsu Province on its first development conference. 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.”. 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.

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