Jiang Zemin

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</div><div>The Chao ConnectionThough third in this list because their influence is the least known and understood, the Chao family had by far the most significant effect on McConnell’s personal life and career. Thanks to second wife Elaine and her family, McConnell became a millionaire many times over and forged ties with contacts at the highest echelons of Chinese government and business.
Elaine Chao’s father is shipping magnate, James Chao.
The South China Morning Post takes up the story.
He ordered two ships to be built at the state-owned shipyard in Shanghai during Mr Jiang’s tenure as mayor. He started meeting Mr Jiang regularly, including three months after the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, when most other American businessmen were avoiding the leadership. Later Mr Chao’s business ties to Beijing would deepen as he started chartering his ships to mainland giants, such as Cosco and Sinotrans.As McConnell’s acquaintance with Elaine Chao developed into a serious relationship, contributions began to pour into his campaign from the Chao family and their business associates. Their wedding ensured that the spigot was never turned off.
Ms Chao and Mr McConnell married in February 1993, and in December the pair met Mr Jiang in Beijing, joined by Ms Chao’s father. Mr McConnell was the second Republican Senator to meet Mr Jiang since Tiananmen, a move which helped him build ties with senior mainland envoys in the US.
Through the Chao family, McConnell cultivated friends in very high places — Mr Jiang is none other than Jiang Zemin, Secretary of the Communist Party from 1989 to 2002 and President of the People’s Republic of China from 1993 to 2003.
There’s little if any doubt that this prompted Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole to appoint McConnell as chair of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee for foreign operations and export financing in 1994. Certainly members of the US-China Business Council were impressed, and their corporate donations flowed freely into McConnell’s campaign coffers.
The change in his fortunes attracts the billionaire donors and McConnell is catapulted to rising star status.
In Shanghai on May 22, 2014, Chinese and Russian firms establish a number of partnerships. Among them are these two:the Russian State Development Bank and the Export Import Bank of China sign an agreement on a $500 million credit line to finance projects in Russiathe Kremlin-controlled VTB Bank and the Bank of China ratify a partnership in investment banking, trade finance and capital markets transactions, and inter-bank lending.The following year, the Export Import Bank of China (now partnered with the Russian State Development Bank) extends a $37.5 million loan to the Chao family shipping company, Foremost, to finance the construction of two bulk carriers being built by the state-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC). Among those present for the signing of the deal are James Chao (Chairman of Foremost) with his daughters, Angela (Deputy Chairman) and Elaine.
Seven months later in May 2016, Elaine’s sister Angela Chao is elected to the Board of Directors at the Bank of China — now partnered with Russia’s VTB bank which has been operating under US sanctions since 2014.
So not only does McConnell have links to China via the Chao connection, both he and the Chao family interlink with the Russians.Fast forward to 2018: McConnell retains his position as senate tyrant after the midterms; Elaine Chao is the Secretary of Transportation in Trump’s cabinet, and the Chao family maintains extensive contacts and business investments in China including a seat on the Board of the Bank of China which is partnered with the Russian VTB Bank that is part-owned by oligarch Oleg Deripaska who shares ownership in Rusal with Viktor Vekselberg whose business partner Len Blavatnik donated $3.5million to McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund.
“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive.”~ Sir Walter Scott
On June 7 CNBC reports:Revelations about Russia’s meddling in America’s 2016 presidential election have pushed Congress to turn up the heat on China, as it seeks to tamp down foreign influence on American institutions.Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., on Tuesday introduced a bill that would require an unclassified interagency report on Chinese political influence operations.That must have jolted McConnell, especially when Marco Rubio declared that he would follow suit.A search of the Library of Congress Roll Call database found that Chris Smith’s bill, HR6010, was introduced on June 5 whereupon it was referred for further action to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. It never surfaced again.
There’s no record of Marco Rubio introducing a similar bill in the senate. His effort was very effectively thwartedIt should now be clear that McConnell has far more to worry about than his upcoming re-election and whatever the hell Trump’s base are thinking. He has more strings attached to his person than an intricate marionette and those controlling the strings are not known for being even-tempered, understanding or forgiving.
It’s little wonder then that he’s blocked every bipartisan bill to protect the Special Counsel’s investigation. Even when the latest bill was strongly and vociferously supported by members of his own caucus, he refused to allow it to come to the floor for a vote. It’s hardly surprising when you realise how enmeshed he is in corruption. He must be terrified of being caught — so the last person he’d want to protect is Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
This also explains why he was so aggressively opposed to President Obama going public with warnings regarding Russia’s attack on American democracy in 2016. If prior to that meeting he was blissfully unaware that USIC was onto the Russians, the suddenness of that unwelcome knowledge, and the realisation of his own jeopardy, must have come as one helluva shock. He wasn’t protecting his party or the GOP presidential nominee when he refused his consent, he was desperate to protect himself.
And that brings us back to why McConnell is perpetuating this shutdown. Some of those pulling his strings may also be involved at some level with Trump’s perfidy. If protecting himself means sticking with Trump then McConnell’s heightened sense of self preservation is going to kick in hard.
But it’s likely to be more complicated than that. For all his posturing, McConnell’s inadequacy renders him weak and his weakness is exacerbated by fear. Running home to Kentucky rather than confronting the expanding disaster in DC is both a physical as well as symbolic attempt to hide from it all.
Weakness, especially a sense of inadequacy, breeds vindictiveness. If he can’t take his dislike and disdain for Trump out on the man himself then he’ll turn his attention to a more acceptable and accessible target: Democrats. Particularly House Democrats. Their vow to conduct real oversight must have really intensified his stress levels. But he has one weapon he can use against them, he can block everything in the senate that they pass in the House. It’s petty and vindictive but that’s how low he’s going.
Nor does he care about the hardships being faced by furloughed employees. The numbers of those affected are already staggering. While there’s no precise accounting of them all, the guesstimate has to take into account the 800,000 furloughed plus their families, plus those in private businesses which depend on working government agencies, plus their families. Already the number must be between 3 and 4 million. By the end of this week, more sections will shut down as their funding also runs out.
No end in sight.
Because the tyrant in charge of the senate isn’t just flawed, isn’t just inadequate to the enormity of the situation, he’s also corrupt. No honorable man would subject his fellow citizens to such privation and misery if he had the power to prevent it.
Addison Mitchell McConnell is without conscience, without benevolence and without honor.==</div>