Chew began her political career after joining the Raub MCA Woman's Youth (
Beliawanis) Section and served as private secretary to former Raub MP Teng Gaik Kwan in 1995. She contested and was elected twice for the parliamentary seat of Petaling Jaya Utara in Selangor in the 1999 and
2004 general election. She was appointed as Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development by the 6th
Prime Minister of Malaysia,
Najib Razak on 9 April 2009 in
Putrajaya. She was sworn in before the
Yang di-Pertuan Agong,
Mizan Zainal Abidin, at the
Istana Negara on 10 April 2009. She was appointed a
Senator after failing to defend her parliamentary seat in the
2008 general election. On 8 April 2010, Chew resigned as MCA Women Chief and deputy minister. Prior to this, on 28 March 2010, during the
2010 MCA election, she had pledged to resign from all her posts if MCA delegates still voted for Dr.
Chua Soi Lek who was involved with DVD sex scandals as president. However, Chua eventually defeated
Ong Tee Keat and
Ong Ka Ting with a slim majority, leading to many to call for Chew to honour her pledge. Many of her followers at Wisma MCA carried banners reading "Holding the principle for the honor of women", "We support you", "We need you" and "Do not resign!". She was then dropped by MCA as a candidate in the
2013 general election. Chew was selected as
Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate in the
2014 Kajang by-election of the
Selangor State Legislative Assembly seat following the events of the
Kajang Move. However, she lost to
Wan Azizah Wan Ismail of the
People's Justice Party (PKR) by 5,379 votes. Prior to returning to her former office as deputy minister in 2014, Chew was again sworn in as a Senator. But she resigned as a Senator on 27 June 2017 to focus on MCA duties. In the
2018 general election, Chew contested the
Raub parliamentary constituency in Pahang, but lost to
Pakatan Harapan (PH)'s
Tengku Zulpuri Shah Raja Puji of
Democratic Action Party (DAP) in a three-corner fight with
Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS). After
Wee Ka Siong was elected as the 11th President of MCA in
2018 MCA election, he selected Chew to become the new and first female MCA Secretary-General. On 13 July 2019, Chew tendered her resignation from the office, effective 20 July 2019, to pursue a PhD in Peking University. ==Controversies==