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Reader question: Please explain “zombie companies” in this story (China issues blueprint on overhauling bloated state industry, AP, September 14, 2017): At a news conference Monday, the deputy head of the Cabinet body that oversees China’s biggest state enterprises said chronically money-losing “zombie companies” will be cleaned up or shut down. My comments: Zombies are dead persons revived by magic or other supernatural powers. Zombies, according to voodoo beliefs in various parts of the world, may walk like the living once again but are deprived of their soul. They are ghosts and skeletons of their former selves. People, real people, are sometimes called zombies metaphorically if they are extremely tired and lifeless. When a company, firm or business is likened to zombies, then the company, firm or business shares some of the characteristics of zombies. They’re lifeless and apathetic, e.g. In other words, these companies are like dead men walking – they’re all but dead. In short, zombie companies are businesses that have seen better, much better days. However, sometimes some of the so-called zombies are kept alive by the government due to stability or other concerns. In the West, too, zombies are sometimes kept alive because letting them go may cause major and unforeseeable consequences. A major bank, for example, may have been loss making for years but is kept alive by the government, via subsidies or bailouts, for similar considerations. Or, as they may say, the bank is too big to fail. | 
