Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a China critic, just quietly dumped his investments in Communist Party-tied Alibaba Group

The Alabama politico, who previously violated federal stock trading rules, has staunchly defended lawmakers' right to trade individual stocks as Congress considers banning the practice.

• Tuberville, a Republican from Alabama, had heavily invested in Alibaba Group.
• A congressional financial disclosure indicates Tuberville has "divested" of Alibaba.
• Lawmakers are debating whether to ban themselves from trading stocks at all.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, one of Congress' most vocal critics of China, has quietly dumped his investments in an e-commerce and technology company with ties to the country's Communist Party.

The Alabama Republican on January 14 executed three stock option trades, valued at between $80,003 and $200,000, that ended his investment in Alibaba Group, according to a disclosure he submitted to the US Senate on February 14.

"This transaction is called buying to cover, which is a way to close out a short sale. Per this transaction, the senator is divested of BABA securities," states Tuberville's filing, which references Alibaba's stock ticker symbol.

Tuberville's divestiture comes at a moment when Congress is debating whether to ban lawmakers — and potentially their spouses — from buying and selling individual stocks altogether.

And the debate follows publication of Insider's "Conflicted Congress" project, which found that 56 members of Congress, including Tuberville, and at least 182 senior congressional aides, have in recent months violated the federal Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 with late or missing stock disclosures. Tuberville's STOCK Act violations are among the largest in Congress when measured by dollar value and number of associated stock trades.

"Conflicted Congress" also found dozens of examples of members of Congress holding stock in companies that clash with their public responsibilities or stated orthodoxies or sat on committees that directly oversee the activities of companies in which they hold shares. 

Since arriving in Washington in 2021, Tuberville has established himself as one of Congress' most vocal critics of China's government. The former college football coach even introduced a bill that would ban the federal government's Thrift Savings Fund from investing in the stocks of companies based in China.

"We don't want to invest that money in Chinese companies to prop up the Chinese," Tuberville said in May on Fox Business Network.

But Tuberville's public statements about China contrasted with his decision to personally invest in Alibaba.

In 2019 Reuters reported that Alibaba had developed a propaganda app for China's government. Jack Ma, Alibaba's founder and former chairman, is also a member of the Chinese Communist Party, reports said.

Tuberville's Alibaba connection: complicated

Tuberville's office, which could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday, told Insider in June 2021 that the senator has financial advisors who "actively manage his portfolio," and that the senator no longer owned Alibaba stock after holding it the year before.

"In early 2020, upon becoming aware of the Alibaba investment, which was less than $5,000, he instructed his advisors to divest in the stock," spokesperson Ryann DuRant said at the time. "The candidate report reflects that divestment in that stock, which took place on June 1, 2020."

But Tuberville continued to buy and sell hundreds of thousands of dollars of Alibaba stock or stock options in 2021, according to federal financial filings.

And while Tuberville has rid himself of his Alibaba investment, he continues to actively trade stocks. In January, he purchased shares in pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc., oil giant Chevron Corporation, and Verizon Communications Inc., among others. 

He also sold stock shares in numerous companies, including tobacco firm Philip Morris International and defense contractors Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Technologies Corp., according a congressional filing on February 14. 

It's unclear whether Tuberville is forever done with trading Alibaba stock or may again in the future. 

Regardless, Tuberville has been critical of the increasingly bipartisan push to ban members of Congress from trading stocks, calling the idea "ridiculous."

"They might as well start sending robots up here," Tuberville told The Independent's Eric Michael Garcia. "You can't do anything."

"I think it would really cut back on the amount of people that would want to come up here and serve, I really do," Tuberville added. "We don't need that."

Other members of Congress have recently made voluntary moves to distance themselves from risk — be it legal or reputational — associated with their stock trades.

Republican Rep. Pat Fallon of Texas this month confirmed to Insider that he will place his stock assets in a Congress-approved qualified blind trust after having racked up STOCK Act violations. 

Democratic Rep. Peter Welch of Vermont, meanwhile, said he and his wife will no longer own individual stock. 

Welch's decision came after Insider reported that Welch was tardy in disclosing that his wife in September sold thousands of dollars of ExxonMobil shares. Welch ultimately disclosed the sale several days after grilling ExxonMobil's CEO at a congressional oversight hearing.