Juvenile offenders sit for a round table hearing at a juvenile court in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province. [Photo/Xinhua]

6. Advancing criminal procedure reform

In October 2016, China issued guidelines on criminal procedure reform and the role of court trials in a bid to reduce wrongful convictions.

The guidelines issued by the supreme court and supreme procuratorate, along with the ministries of public security, state security and justice, seek to improve criminal procedure by enhancing the court's role in fact finding, identifying evidence, protecting rights and impartial judgment.

The 21-clause document stresses the presumption of innocence, identifies several major problems in the current litigation system, puts forward a package of changes to the rules of evidence and investigation, and sets out the court's key role as protecting the rights of all interested parties.