If I recall correctly, its the ongoing aspect. There is debt that a government owned company has in a government owned bank. Writing that debt off (and not continuing to accrue more debt) would mean acknowledging that company _doesn't_ have any profit and would need to close (and fire its workers).

As it is, the government owned businesses that have employees who do nothing are a form of welfare - its just they can't call it that - switching the columns from "employment and having revenue of X" to "payments to unemployed workers" could have a significant impact in the morale and productivity of people actually working.

Lemon socialism ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_socialism ) and zombie company ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_company ).

Granted, last year's news: [Massive layoffs coming as China confronts its overbuilt 'zombie economy'](http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/china-zombie-economy-layoffs-pe...) has it at 6,000,000 workers which could cause some significant instability with it that the government is trying to manage (granted, its by ignoring it and continuing to pay the workers despite oversupply).

Laying off 6M people will hurt many others and needs to be watched for when it does happen.