For years, U.S. representatives and senators have traded millions of dollars worth of stock in companies linked to the Chinese Communist Party while holding committee assignments tasking them with bolstering America’s defenses against China, presenting conflicts of interest.

While many lawmakers from both parties buy and sell CCP-linked assets, a handful stand out as frequent traders. Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Michael McCaul (R-TX), as well as Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), have collectively disclosed over 100 trades involving Tencent, Baidu, NetEase, Daqo New Energy, Weibo, or Alibaba — corporations with varying degrees of connection to the CCP — since 2016. 

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Trades that appear in disclosures filed by McCaul, Gottheimer, and Tuberville are of particular interest, as the three congressmen sit on committees tasked with maintaining America’s national security. McCaul, unlike Tuberville and Gottheimer, has not disclosed any trades involving these CCP-linked entities since 2021.

One of Tuberville’s trades stands out among the rest: his decision to purchase stock in a Chinese manufacturing company after the Department of Commerce linked it to the use of forced Uyghur labor in China’s Xinjiang province.

In October 2022, the senator purchased between $1,001 and $15,000 worth of stock in Daqo New Energy. Over a year prior, in June 2021, the United States banned Daqo New Energy from importing its goods after it determined the corporation was involved in the extraction of forced labor from Uyghurs and other minority groups in China’s far west. Tuberville sold his position in Daqo New Energy in April 2023.

Tuberville is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he has been sharply critical of China, and is running for Alabama governor in 2026. The senator has faced criticism in the past for his well-timed stock trades.

Gottheimer, another China hawk, serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he is the ranking member of the National Security Agency and Cyber Subcommittee. He also sits on the Defense Intelligence and Overhead Architecture Subcommittee and the National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions Subcommittee. 

Alibaba has emerged as one of Gottheimer’s most commonly disclosed assets, with the congressman reporting 15 trades involving the Chinese e-commerce giant between 2019 and 2025, according to public records. 

The total value of Gottheimer’s Alibaba trades ranges between $15,000 and $225,000. Exact transaction values are not recorded in congressional financial disclosures; instead, an upper and lower bound for each sale or purchase is required. Since 2016, Tuberville has traded between $406,000 and $965,000 in Alibaba stocks and options.

Alibaba has long worked to advance Beijing’s interests abroad, serving as a key partner in the CCP’s Belt and Road Initiative — a global infrastructure investment project that critics argue serves as a vector for Chinese influence in the developing world. The conglomerate has worked with the Chinese government to expand digital infrastructure in regions where China seeks to expand its influence. Additionally, Alibaba has developed propaganda tools for the CCP, received extensive subsidies from the Chinese government, and reportedly developed software calibrated to detect the faces of Uyghurs. 

Gottheimer has also long reported trades involving the Chinese software conglomerate Tencent, disclosing 11 trades involving the security since 2019. CEO Ma Huateng served two terms as a member of the CCP in China’s National People’s Congress. WeChat, a Tencent-owned messaging service popular in China, engages in censorship and surveillance on behalf of the Chinese government. In January 2025, the Pentagon designated Tencent as a “Chinese military company.” Gottheimer didn’t offload his stake in the company until months later.

An independent trust, not a blind one, manages Gottheimer’s assets, meaning that the congressman knows what assets are in his portfolio. In 2022, Gottheimer pledged to transfer his holdings to a blind trust but has yet to do so, citing procedural troubles with the House Ethics Committee. 

“Prior to taking office, Josh turned over management of his retirement savings and investments to a third party, who has full investment discretion,” a spokesman for the representative told the Washington Examiner. “Throughout his time in Congress, decisions related to his managed investments have been made at the direction of that third party. Josh is also awaiting approval from Congress of a blind trust. In the meantime, he has taken the extra step of setting up an independent trust.”

The spokesperson also pointed toward Gottheimer’s support for legislation that would require all members of Congress to place their assets in blind trusts but would not provide information on whether the congressman still holds CCP-linked assets.

While Gottheimer, Tuberville, and McCaul disclosed millions of dollars worth of trades linked to the CCP, the lawmakers have adopted publicly hostile stances against China. McCaul leads the House China Task Force and has supported reams of legislation aimed at curtailing China, a record that earned him a sanction from the CCP. Gottheimer, meanwhile, has spearheaded legislation aimed at stymying the growth of Chinese tech products such as TikTok and DeepSeek. Tuberville has led calls to block Chinese entities from purchasing American farmland and to curtail Chinese investment activities. 

McCaul, who served as the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee from 2013 to 2019 and, since then, as the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also reported a high frequency of Alibaba trades.

From 2016 to 2021, the congressman disclosed Alibaba trades 44 times in transactions that were, in total, worth between $2.7 million and $6.1 million. Politico reported in May 2020 that McCaul had disclosed a purchase of between $50,000 and $100,000 in Tencent shares. The Texas congressman clarified that the assets are held in his wife’s name and were purchased by a third-party investment manager without her direction.

McCaul also disclosed trades involving the Chinese firms NetEase and Baidu. Gottheimer also traded Baidu while Tuberville bought and sold NetEase shares. 

Baidu has collaborated with China’s internet police to crack down on individuals spreading “anti-government rumors” and reportedly assisted the CCP with military research and its Belt and Road Initiative. NetEase, meanwhile, uses its immense clout and financial sway in the videogame industry to advance the CCP’s interests. 

Gottheimer also reported trading thousands of dollars worth of stock in Weibo, a Chinese microblogging platform, between 2017 and 2018. Weibo has collaborated with the CCP to censor dissident viewpoints. 

Elliot Berke, an attorney for McCaul, confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the Alibaba, NetEase, and Baidu holdings in the congressman’s disclosures are owned by his wife and were purchased by a third-party investment manager.

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“As ranking member and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the congressman made clear that he believed no American should trust or do business with the CCP,” a spokeswoman for the representative told the Washington Examiner. A staffer in the congressman’s office shared that McCaul was pleased to learn that his wife’s investment manager has not been engaging with CCP-related entities.

Tuberville’s office did not respond to a request for comment.