Former US secretary of labor Elaine Chao (趙小蘭) and her father are to be granted honorary doctoral degrees next week by a Taiwanese university in recognition of their achievements.
Chao and her father, James Chao (趙錫成), who arrived in Taiwan on Thursday, are to receive the honorary degrees from National Chiao Tung University on Monday at a ceremony in Hsinchu.
Elaine Chao was secretary of the US Department of Labor from 2001 to 2009 in the administration of then-US president George W. Bush. Her focus was on improving the competitiveness of the US workforce. She is the first American woman of Asian descent to have served as a member of the US Cabinet.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The 61-year-old is recognized for her handling of incidents such as the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 and the Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska in 1989, and for her management of maritime transportation during the Gulf War in the early 1990s, when she served as head of the Federal Maritime Commission and deputy secretary of the US Department of Transportation.
Elaine Chao, now a distinguished fellow at the US Heritage Foundation, was born in Taiwan and emigrated to the US with her family at the age of eight.
Her husband, Mitch McConnell, a senior Republican senator from Kentucky, has been Minority Leader of the US Senate since 2007. He is set to become the Senate Majority leader, following the midterm elections earlier this month.
James Chao was a driving force behind the re-establishment of National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan in 1958. The university was originally founded in Shanghai in 1896.
A graduate of the university when it was still based in Shanghai, James Chao is a recognized leader in international shipping and finance.
James Chao also played a significant role in promoting academic exchanges between five Taiwanese and Chinese universities from 1988 to 1999, National Chiao Tung University said, which decided to grant him an honorary degree in recognition of his contribution to the university.
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