The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill, on Wednesday, that forces TikTok to separate from the Chinese company that owns it, under penalty of being banned in the United States.

352 representatives voted in favor of the proposed law and 65 against it, in a rare moment of consensus between the two parties in divided Washington.

The legislation is the biggest threat yet to the video-sharing app, which has gained huge popularity around the world, while raising concerns among governments and security officials about its Chinese ownership and possible subordination to the Communist Party in Beijing.

On Wednesday, China warned the United States that the proposed ban on the application “will inevitably backfire.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said: “Although the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens American national security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok.”

He added, "This kind of bullying behavior that cannot win in fair competition disrupts the normal business activity of companies, harms the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and harms the normal international economic and trade system."

The fate of the bill in the Senate is not yet known, as senior figures oppose taking such a radical measure against an application that is very popular with about 170 million subscribers in the United States.

President Joe Biden must sign the bill, officially called “Protecting Americans from Controlled Foreign Apps,” into law if he reaches the White House.

The app strongly denies any ties to the Chinese government, and has restructured the company in such a way that American users' data remains inside the country, according to the company.