For more than a decade, Chinese companies raised billions by listing their shares on American stock exchanges while avoiding the accounting-quality checks that other public firms endure.
But economic tension between the two global superpowers, amplified by political outrage in the U.S. over China’s role in the spread of the new coronavirus, has pushed a financial-markets issue into the political mainstream. Legislation passed by the Senate—and now introduced in the House—would kick Chinese companies off U.S. stock exchanges…