AMNESTY International has hit out at Beijing claims that steps have been taken to stop torture - and insists that it is widespread and systematic in China.
A week before a group of United Nations experts scrutinise China's record on torture, the London-based human rights watchdog has urged the Chinese Government to bring in fundamental reforms to stop the abuses.
The 10-member UN Committee Against Torture (CAT), which monitors how countries implement international obligations on torture, will meet in Geneva to review reports from China and seven other countries.
China voluntarily ratified the UN Convention Against Torture in 1988 and sent its first report to the CAT in December 1989.
But dissatisfied UN experts asked Beijing to answer more than 90 questions in an additional report.
Beijing submitted its additional report last year.
But Amnesty International said: ''The additional report provides little new information and is very similar to the first report examined in 1990.'' The human rights body said the additional report failed to explain how existing legal provisions aimed at prohibiting torture ''are implemented in practice''.