China winning the battle against 'zombie' firms

China has eliminated 95 percent of the 2,000 "zombie companies" in its State-owned enterprise system via bankruptcy closures, mergers and reorganization through a three-year program launched at the end of 2016, a senior State asset regulator said on Thursday.

Peng Huagang, secretary-general of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, said the government will speed up the pace of implementing all reform tasks in SOEs to cut backward production capacity and deepen mixed-ownership reform.

"Zombie companies" are economically unviable businesses, usually in industries with severe overcapacity, kept alive only with aid from the government and banks.