僵尸政策 (jiāngshī zhèngcè): Zombie policies

Over the years, central and local governments have issued a variety of policies aimed at social and economic development that have failed to be properly implemented. These well-intentioned but "dormant" policies are known as zombie policies.

There are a variety of reasons why these policies have failed to be effectively implemented. Some policymakers only draw up the rough framework of a policy and do not detail how it should be implemented, which makes the proposed policy difficult to carry out. Also the relationships among various policies are not straightened out and some new policies are in contradiction with other existing policies. And some local policies lack feasibility, which is only the impulsive decision of local policymakers.

These zombie policies can hardly benefit the enterprises and the public, and they undermine the government's authority and credibility. In addition, they undermine local business environments, which is harmful for social and economic development.

For the sake of the public and enterprises, all the zombie policies should be cleaned up, implemented or improved as soon as possible. Meanwhile, there should be a supervision mechanism to enable the effective implementation of policies in the future.