Follow Mitch McConnell’s money, not his tweets
- US Senate majority leader expresses moral outrage at Beijing in the wake of Hong Kong protests as his wife’s family grows rich from China policies
Moral outrage is not a quality usually associated with US Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.
“The people of Hong Kong are bravely standing up to the Chinese Communist Party as Beijing tries to encroach on their autonomy and freedom,” he tweeted this week.
“Any violent crackdown would be completely unacceptable … The world is watching.”
Is this a joke? The Republican Party elder is concerned about the safety of Hong Kong protesters when he wouldn’t bat an eyelid over Americans being routinely massacred by gun-toting crazies.
Loose gun laws, corporate handouts, a US Supreme Court full of hard-right ideologues – you name it, McConnell has a hand in it. It’s not for nothing that a recent biography of the senator is titled The Cynic. The context of the tweet was the reintroduction of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which the US Congress is expected to debate next month.
There is a lot of smoke, but no fire, from this act.
It’s never going to be passed, because too many American business interests and people, including those of the Chinese family of McConnell’s wife, will be threatened in Hong Kong and on the mainland if Washington revokes the city’s separate customs status and effectively puts an end to “one country, two systems”.
McConnell’s wife is Elaine Chao, who is the current US transportation secretary.
Where is US transport secretary Elaine Chao?
Referring to her family, this is what The New York Times reports: “In China, the Chaos [her parents] are no ordinary family.”
They run an American shipping company with deep ties to the economic and political elite in China, where most of the company’s business is centred.
“Over the years, Ms Chao has repeatedly used her connections and celebrity status in China to boost the profile of the company, which benefits handsomely from the expansive industrial policies in Beijing that are at the heart of diplomatic tensions with the United States.”
Elaine’s father, James Chao, was a schoolmate of former president Jiang Zemin.
According to the Times, “In 2008, James Chao gave the couple a gift of as much as US$25 million, vaulting Mr McConnell into the ranks of the richest senators.”
On top of that, “13 members of the extended Chao family have given more than US$1 million to Mr McConnell’s campaigns and to political action committees tied to him”.
So what’s McConnell’s game? Follow the money, not his tweets.
