SENTIMENT about operating in China among US businesses has plummeted to a new low, according to an annual survey by the US-China Business Council, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The annual poll of member companies found American multinationals increasingly losing confidence in the near-term prospects for their China ventures, fears largely driven by Beijing's continued use of Covid lockdowns.

This year, 21 per cent of respondents said they were pessimistic or somewhat pessimistic about their five-year business outlook in the world's second-largest economy, compared with nine per cent last year.

Only half of 117 companies polled said they were optimistic or somewhat optimistic about their own outlook in China, down 18 per cent from the year before and the lowest since the survey began more than 16 years ago.

China's continued use of a stringent Covid containment strategy centred on sudden lockdowns was the driving force behind the increase in pessimism, supplanting bilateral relations on the list of top challenges, the business group said.

US-China relations had been ranked as the top concern for multinationals over the previous four years.