China's first guideline to prevent unjust or wrongful judgments was issued by the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on August 13.

Judges, procurators and police officers will bear "life-long responsibility" for their roles in wrongful judgments, according to the document.

To prevent the extortion of confessions via torture, the guideline reiterates the articles in the Criminal Procedural Law, which was amended last year, saying all interrogations should be conducted in detention houses and recorded using audio or video equipment.

The guideline also advocates the principle of "innocent until proven guilty," as well as calling for changes to the current judicial appraisal system, which evaluates the performance of law enforcement personnel based on the number of criminal cases that have been solved and the number of suspects who have been detained or prosecuted.