Talk:Elaine Chao

BLP issue

This edit presents some difficulties with respect to Wikipedia's Biographies of Living Persons (BLP) policy. The edit deleted the material indicated below by strikethrough:

“ In early October 2022, Donald Trump posted on his social media in a criticism of Mitch McConnell, "He has a DEATH WISH. Must immediately seek help and advise from his China loving wife, Coco Chow!" Trump used the racist nickname again in a November 13, 2022 post criticizing McConnell, saying "everyone despises [McConnell] and his otherwise lovely wife, Coco Chow!" Via spokesperson Steven Cheung, Trump denied the racism charge.

References

”

The edit summary is as follows: "Adds nothing significant about Chao. The article already states what Trump did. The denial may tell us something about Trump or his spokesman, but those would belong elsewhere." The BLP policy says the following:

“ This policy applies to any living person mentioned in a BLP, whether or not that person is the subject of the article, and to material about living persons in other articles and on other pages, including talk pages....If an allegation or incident is noteworthy, relevant, and well documented, it belongs in the article—even if it is negative and the subject dislikes all mention of it....If the subject has denied such allegations, their denial(s) should be reported too. ”

Here we have an allegation against a living person (Trump), and the BLP policy fully applies to it even though he is not the main subject of this article. So, the denial should be reported too. Alternatively, we could remove the allegation (by changing “racist nickname” to “nickname”) because, as the quoted edit summary said, it adds nothing significant about Chao. Personally, I find it annoying and childish whenever someone makes fun of someone else's name, whether or not it rises to the level of racism. In any event, even putting aside the BLP policy, the very brief sentence that has been deleted seems informative and interesting, especially in combination with its footnote which is directly related to Ms. Chao and mentions her repeatedly. Anythingyouwant (talk) 02:54, 8 March 2023 (UTC)

I removed the allegation to conform this article to WP:BLP, in lieu of including the denial (my edit summary referred to this talk page). Anythingyouwant (talk) 05:28, 8 March 2023 (UTC)

Another editor has now reinserted the allegation without the denial, and without talk page discussion. WP:BLP is unequivocal about this, and it does not matter how many reliable sources include the denial. However, in this instance, tons of reliable sources do include the denial. Here is a sampling:

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/25/trump-elaine-chao-asian-americans-mcconnell/
• https://www.salon.com/2023/01/26/former-transportation-secretary-elaine-chao-has-had-enough-of-his/
• https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/elaine-chao-issues-rare-rebuke-174256157.html
• https://www.newsweek.com/everything-trump-has-said-about-elaine-chao-she-finally-fires-back-1776666

Even if we decide to say that reliable sources characterize the denial as false, still the denial should be included, unless we remove the allegation. Anythingyouwant (talk) 13:32, 8 March 2023 (UTC)

User:SPECIFICO, can we talk? Anythingyouwant (talk) 13:55, 8 March 2023 (UTC)

I have rewritten the material and reinserted with additional footnotes: "Via spokesperson Steven Cheung, Trump denied that his racist attack on Chao was racist." Anythingyouwant (talk) 18:38, 8 March 2023 (UTC)

The source does not claim that the staffer was conveying any statement from Trump. It is Cheung's statement. SPECIFICO talk 19:27, 8 March 2023 (UTC)

Which source do you mean? There are three sources now following the denial, in this BLP: WaPo, Newsweek, and Politico. (Lots more sources are available too.) Anythingyouwant (talk) 19:56, 8 March 2023 (UTC)

Remove your edit until you can provide what the source verifies. SPECIFICO talk 19:58, 8 March 2023 (UTC)

I have. Whenever an RS says that the spokesperson of a public figure says X, then X is attributable to the public figure. You haven’t even said which source you’re dissatisfied with. Have you looked at all three of them? Anythingyouwant (talk) 20:01, 8 March 2023 (UTC)

Thread started at the Original Research Noticeboard, here. Anythingyouwant (talk) 21:02, 8 March 2023 (UTC)

Chao and Kroger

why this page doesn't contain information about Chao being in the board of directors of Kroger? 50.35.101.2 (talk) 22:30, 24 September 2024 (UTC)

Already in the article here. Stefen 𝕋ower_{s among the rest!} ^{Gab • Gruntwerk} 22:33, 24 September 2024 (UTC)

Using Taiwanese-American is misleading, not accurate just political convenience

Applying these parameters to former Cabinet Secretary Elaine Chao offers another ironclad historical example. In fact, her family’s background is one of the most thoroughly documented and well-known business and political lineages of the post-1949 diaspora.

Elaine Chao was born in Taipei in 1953 and immigrated to the United States in 1961 at the age of eight. Her parents, Ruth Mulan Chu Chao and James S.C. Chao (founder of the Foremost Group), were both native to Jiading, Shanghai, in mainland China, and fled to Taiwan during the 1949 Nationalist retreat.

Because she was born and immigrated during the height of the Chiang Kai-shek regime to parents with deep roots in Shanghai, the legal, sociological, and ideological facts map onto her history with absolute precision.

Below is the structured, encyclopedic text tailored for a Wikipedia review.

Proposed Encyclopedic Revision: Generational Framework of the Post-1949 Diaspora

The biographical categorization of individuals born in Taiwan during the mid-20th century who subsequently immigrated to the United States—such as former U.S. Secretary of Transportation and Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao—involves distinct historical layers of international law, state nomenclature, and internal sociology that diverge significantly from modern 21st-century frameworks.

1. Linear Ancestry and Sociological Context (Waishengren) While modern political geography retroactively applies the term "Taiwanese Americans" to individuals born on the island, the foundational sociological and genealogical classification of the family unit belongs entirely to the Waishengren (Mainlander) cohort. Secretary Chao's parents, James S.C. Chao and Ruth Mulan Chu Chao, were both native to Jiading, Shanghai, mainland China, and relocated to Taipei as refugees of the Chinese Civil War following the 1949 Kuomintang (KMT) retreat. During the White Terror and Martial Law eras, the ruling Waishengren minority enforced a strict, state-mandated Chinese identity. This structure centered on the absolute political directive to eventually reclaim the mainland under military initiatives like Project National Glory. The state actively suppressed localized Benshengren regionalism and native dialects in favor of Standard Mandarin, which remained the central linguistic and cultural pillar of the Chao household.

2. Legal State Nomenclature and Immigration Status At her birth in 1953, Secretary Chao was issued a birth certificate by the Republic of China (ROC). When she and her family immigrated to the United States in 1961, they traveled under Republic of China passports. Under the international geopolitical realities of the 1960s, the United States State Department strictly recognized the ROC in Taipei as the sole, legitimate government representing the entirety of China. Consequently, on all contemporaneous U.S. immigration, legal, and census documentation, the family's country of origin was officially classified as China, rendering Secretary Chao logistically and legally a Chinese American upon arrival. This legal designation remained the formal baseline when she was later naturalized as a U.S. citizen.

3. Territory and Sovereignty Frameworks The legal status of the territory from which her family departed remains tied to two foundational post-war conflicts that left its ultimate sovereignty technically unresolved under international law: The Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895) permanently severed the island from the Qing Dynasty, ceding it to the Empire of Japan. The post-WWII Treaty of San Francisco (1951) saw Japan formally renounce all titles and claims to the island, but intentionally omitted naming a recipient sovereign nation. As a result, the de facto ROC government occupied a territory of undetermined status, maintaining a wartime administration in Taipei while asserting ancestral and legal jurisdiction over the Chinese mainland.

4. Ideological Conclusion and the Context of Modern Branding When the Chao family boarded their vessel to the United States in 1961, the concept of identifying as "Taiwanese-American" was entirely foreign and unaligned with their worldview. As Waishengren who had personally experienced the trauma of the Chinese Civil War and displacement from Shanghai, they left the island as citizens of the Republic of China. They operated under the firm conviction that their heritage, their language, and their long-term futures belonged inherently to the broader historical trajectory of China. The retrospective application of the term "Taiwanese American" to describe the origins of this specific historical window does not reflect the legal, cultural, or psychological reality of the family's departure; rather, it is the product of modern, revisionist political branding that emerged decades later as the domestic and international political landscape of the island transformed.

Plain-Text Wikipedia References for Submission

Elaine Chao Biographical Record: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Chao

The Mainlander Demographic Definition (Waishengren): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waishengren

The Native Taiwanese Definition (Benshengren): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benshengren

The 1895 Cession of Taiwan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Shimonoseki

The Post-WWII Peace Treaty: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_San_Francisco

The Legal Sovereignty Dispute: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_the_Undetermined_Status_of_Taiwan

The Era of Martial Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_law_in_Taiwan

The White Terror Suppressions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Terror_(Taiwan

The Plan to Reclaim Mainland China (Project National Glory): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_National_Glory

The Republic of China Government Framework: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_China_(1912%E2%80%931949

The Broad Demographic Label: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Americans

The Modern Retrospective Label: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwanese_Americans ~2026-33078-30 (talk) 09:24, 11 June 2026 (UTC)

The back-and-forth between calling Chao "Taiwanese-American" and "Chinese-American" started on February 7, 2026, after a long time of calling her "an American". I suggest we go back to the long-term description of "an American" and letting the description of her heritage in the second paragraph carry the weight here. the Stefen 𝕋ower 01:23, 7 July 2026 (UTC)

To add to article

The current version of this article mentions "Chao traveled to China for a long-planned philanthropic visit." In order to help make this article more properly encyclopedic, could we flesh out this sentence by adding which specific philanthropies or causes Chao was promoting? ~2026-37846-32 (talk) 15:41, 8 July 2026 (UTC)

If you have a reliable source that covers these details, please feel free to bring it here. We can't do anything without a source. the Stefen 𝕋ower 17:04, 8 July 2026 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 11 July 2026

Change the date in the beginning of the paragraph: "On June 14, 2026, two days before her husband..." to "On June 12, 2026, two days before her husband..." Jackchampr (talk) 00:02, 11 July 2026 (UTC)

Partly done: I've removed the date and rephrased the sentence because the cited source doesn't specify when her trip to China began. Day Creature (talk) 05:37, 11 July 2026 (UTC)