Staff members practice sign language in a Starbucks coffee store in Guangzhou, south of China's Guangdong Province, May 19, 2019. China marks the 29th National Day for Helping the Disabled on May 19, the third Sunday of May. (Photo: Xinhua)

China remains a top long-term priority for most US companies despite slowing growth, wider China-US tensions and the COVID-19 epidemic, the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham China) said on Tuesday.

Many American companies in China continue to be profitable, though 21 percent of surveyed members saw a drop in revenue in 2019, compared with 7 percent in 2017, according to the chamber's annual Business Climate Survey report released on Tuesday. 

The proportion of members describing their financial performance as "profitable" in the Chinese market dropped from 73 percent in 2017 to 61 percent in 2019 - the lowest percentage to report profitability in almost two decades, according to the survey.

"The fight against COVID-19, ongoing bilateral negotiations and a slowing Chinese economy make for challenging business conditions," said AmCham China Chairman Greg Gilligan. 

"Foreign businesses will have to be versatile and resilient, and keep long-term plans in mind. But the market panic of COVID-19 will eventually subside, and 2020 will be a critical year for businesses and policy makers with significant impact on the trajectory of US-China relations," Gilligan noted.

This is the 22nd consecutive year that the chamber has surveyed its members on China's business climate. The survey, which was conducted in late 2019, was sent to 771 AmCham China member company representatives, of which 372 completed the majority of the questions.

Slowing economic growth and continued uncertainty in China-US relations were also cited as key reasons behind a growing number of companies saying they have a pessimistic outlook on their industries' market growths and China investment plans, the Chamber said. 

Nearly one in four companies - and over 40 percent in the resources and industrial sector - do not expect their markets to grow in 2020. In contrast, the consumer and services sectors displayed greater optimism toward market growth, due to anticipated growth in the number of middle-income households, according to the survey.

"Despite challenges in the Chinese market, the improved domestic business environment has boosted our confidence in making long-term investment here," a senior employee of a US company in the services industry who asked to remain anonymous told the Global Times.

"We are trying to get prepared to grasp the opportunity of pent-up demand in China due to the virus impact, and the great market growth potential will accelerate our expansion after the epidemic is controlled later this year," the employee said.

For most member companies, China remains a top priority, the survey found. A combination of concrete actions taken in 2019 coupled with reforms in the financial services sector have boosted members' confidence in the Chinese government's commitment to further open its market to foreign investment. 

And a higher proportion of foreign businesses say they felt more welcome in China in 2019, despite ongoing turbulence in the China-US bilateral relationship. 

A total of 69 percent of US firms agreed that China's enforcement of intellectual property rights has improved in the last five years, an increase of 10 percentage points from 2018. And 50 percent of members said the investment environment in China had improved in 2019, compared with 38 percent in 2018.