The procedure now has to be passed by the House of Representatives before being signed into law by President Trump.

It comes as US-China agitation increases over the virus pandemic and after the Luckin Coffee accounting rumours.

The planned legislation would also require publicly traded companies to reveal whether they are owned or controlled by a foreign government.

The bill applies to all foreign companies, but is targeted at China, and follows intense criticism of Beijing by Mr Trump and other US politicians.

Mr Trump and officials in his administration argue that China mishandled the coronavirus outbreak in its early stages.

The escalation has now getting out of hand to become a pandemic that has killed almost 330,000 people worldwide and crippled the global economy.

*US-listed Chinese companies have already come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks after Luckin Coffee revealed that an internal investigation found hundreds of millions of dollars of its sales last year were “fabricated”.*

The company said its own findings had found that fabricated sales from the second quarter of last year to the fourth quarter amounted to about 2.2bn yuan ($310m; £254m). That equates to about 40% of its real gained annual sales.

The Chinese coffee chain has since ceased its chief executive and chief operating officer, while six other employees who were told to have been involved in or known about the transactions have been taken back or put on leave.

Source___BBC News