In a normal presidential administration—hell, in a normal professional setting of any kind—it would be considered inappropriate to bring one‘s family members to official work meetings and/or on business trips. But of course, the Trump administration is not normal. Rather, it‘s a family affair, the primary goal of which is to enrich Donald Trump and the people who surround him—who, among others, include his not-very-bright son-in-law. That M.O. starts at the top with the grifter-in-chief, but it also extends to dozens of current and former cabinet members who’ve seen no issue with taking their wives on taxpayer-funded European vacations, using a government plane to get a better shot of the solar eclipse, plunking down $31,000 on dining-room sets, and allegedly planning work travel based on a “desire to visit particular cities or countries.” So it’s not entirely surprising that Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao thought it would be no big deal to bring her relatives—who happen to have major business interests in Beijing—to meetings with government officials during a visit to China in the fall of 2017, but unfortunately for Chao, not everyone in government has adopted Team Trump’s way of thinking.

The New York Times reports that in October 2017, an alarmed official at the American Embassy in Beijing wrote an urgent email seeking advice concerning “a series of unorthodox requests” made by Chao‘s office related to her first visit to China as a Trump cabinet member. According to the Times, Chao—who is married to Senate leader Mitch McConnell—wanted federal officials to “coordinate travel arrangements for at least one family member and include relatives in meetings with government officials.” Such requests would be wildly inappropriate for any secretary’s relatives, but were even more so given the Chao family’s business: her father, James Chao, founded Foremost Group, a shipping, trading, and finance company now run by Elaine’s sister Angela Chao. While the company is based in New York, its fleet is, per the Times, “overwhelmingly focused on China,” with roughly 72% of the raw materials it has shipped since early 2018 going to China, cargo that “helps feed” Beijing’s “industrial machine, which manufactures steel products that are a point of dispute in the deepening trade war between” China and the U.S. The company reportedly constructs almost all its vessels in state-owned shipyards in China, some with loans from the Chinese government.

Though Chao has not worked for the company since the 1970s, it is the (ongoing) source of her wealth and the political wealth of her husband. In 2008 her father gave the couple a gift of as much as $25 million, while 13 members of the Chao family, including Foremost CEO Angela Chao, have given more than $1 million to McConnell’s campaigns and to PACs tied to him. “She had these relatives who were fairly wealthy and connected to the shipping industry,” a State Department official who was involved in deliberations over the visit told the Times. “Their business interests were potentially affected by meetings.” Per the Times, the email from the official at the American Embassy in Beijing wasn’t a case of an overly skittish bureaucrat. “They would not have raised a question like this about a cabinet secretary unless it was something really serious,” said David Rank, a former State Department deputy chief of mission in Beijing, adding that the requests were “alarmingly inappropriate.“ After the matter was raised to officials in the State and Transportation Departments—and after the paper of record started asking questions—the trip was abruptly canceled.

The aborted trip, however, is not the only time Chao has seemingly attempted to do her family’s business a solid while in office. In 2017 she attended a contract-signing ceremony between Foremost and the Sumitomo Group of Japan, the latter of which was “subject to Transportation Department oversight for transit projects.” Several months after Chao was confirmed, her father told the China Press that he had traveled on Air Force One and talked “business” with Trump. At her confirmation hearing, she conveniently failed to mention her family’s considerable ties to the maritime industry, which of course comes under her department’s purview. Nor did she bring up awards she’d received in China, or a position as an international adviser to the city of Wuhan, despite the fact that the Senate questionnaire requires nominees to list all honorary positions, something her spouse surely could have told her. (An agency official told the Times it was an oversight.) Marilyn L. Glynn, a former general counsel with the Office of Government Ethics, said it’s obvious Chao should recuse herself from any decisions that impact the shipping industry, given that “she might be tempted to make sure her family company is not adversely affected in any policy choices.” (A department spokesperson naturally insisted Chao has zero conflicts of interest.)