The Chinese coffee chain Luckin Coffee has filed for bankruptcy protection in New York, the company said in a statement on Friday.  

This filling will protect the company from lawsuits by U.S. creditors.

Luckin hailed this as a piece of good news on China's Twitter-like Weibo, claiming it is another step forward for the embattled company to be reborn. 

"As an overriding step toward the company's reorganization and a common practice under the Cayman proceeding, the provisional liquidators filed a verified petition with the United States Bankruptcy Court to seek recognition of the company's provisional liquidation procedures," it said. 

This procedure will suspend the proceedings against the company in the United States, making it possible to wrap up the Cayman reorganization in an orderly manner, Luckin added.

"All company stores remain open for business … (it) is not expected to materially impact the company's day-to-day operations. The company continues to meet its trade obligations in the ordinary course of business, including paying suppliers, vendors and employees," the company said in a statement on its official website.

Shares of the major rival to Starbucks in China were delisted from the Nasdaq last June. The coffee chain has paid fines to both Chinese regulators and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission out of fabricated transactions to the tune of some $300 million, from April 2019 through to January 2020.