A senior Chinese justice official has acknowledged that almost every defendant wrongfully convicted of a crime in recent years was tortured to extract a confession.
China's official Xinhua news agency quotes the deputy chief prosecutor, Wang Zhenchuan, as saying that at least 30 people every year are wrongfully convicted because of torture, and the actual number could be higher.
Wang was speaking Sunday at a legal seminar in southern China's Hainan province.
China's top prosecutors have been leading a campaign to crack down on police who use illegal interrogation methods to get confessions of guilt from suspected criminals.
In March, Beijing introduced new guidelines that require police to make audio and video recordings of all interrogations involving major cases, such as murder and gang violence.
Special U.N. investigator Manfred Nowak has said torture is on the decline in China, but remains widespread.
Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.