The National Journal of Media is the first independent media outlet to document McConnell’s ties to China in 2020. Trump recently issued a statement denouncing Senate Minority Leader McConnell as a “dour, sullen, unsmiling political hack” responsible for the Republicans’ devastating loss in the Senate. Trump then went on to say that McConnell cannot be trusted on China because of his Family‘s ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
One of the most notable points in President Trump’s statement was that “McConnell has no credibility on China because of his family’s large Chinese business holdings.” Trump also said that the Senate minority leader “is doing nothing about the enormous economic and military threat of the Chinese Communist Party.”
The National Archives reported in some detail on McConnell’s family ties to the Communist Chinese state in 2020, reporting on various anomalies in the Marriage between McConnell and the Zhao family.
Most notably, McConnell’s wife, Zhao Xiaolan, is the daughter of shipping tycoon Zhao Xicheng and Zhu Mulan, and the sister of businesswoman Zhao Anji, who was appointed to the board of the Bank of China as a non-executive independent director in 2016.
McConnell’s federal disclosures jumped from $3 million to $33 million in the two years following Zhu Mulan’s death, and McConnell also received more than $1 million in financial contributions from Zhao Xiaolan’s family.
McConnell’s sister-in-law, Angie Chiu, is currently the CEO of the Formosa (Foremost) maritime empire, which operates almost exclusively in Asia, even though Formosa describes itself as a U.S. company with offices in New York. Foremost’s fleet is registered in Liberia (Liberia) and Hong Kong, not in the United States.
In 2019, shipping tracker VesselsValue valued Formosa’s fleet at $1.2 billion, making Formosa the most valuable such fleet in the U.S.-based dry bulk shipping business, while operating primarily in Asia.
McConnell’s father-in-law, Zhao Xicheng, and sister-in-law, Zhao Anji, both serve on the board of the Communist Party-directed China State Shipbuilding corporation, which, as the New York Times reported, receives large cash loans from Chinese banks. As noted earlier, Zhao Anji serves on the board of the Bank of China as a non-executive director.
While the Chao family insists that the immediate reason for so much curiosity about McConnell’s relationship with China is anti-China bias, the issue has received simultaneous bipartisan attention during McConnell’s long and prosperous tenure in the Senate.
President Trump’s recent statement took aim at McConnell, promising to “support the candidate challenging the Senate minority leader” if necessary. For the Chinese and English versions of Trump’s statement, please see: Trump returns to blast McConnell! The full statement [compiled by Apollo.com].
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