Vice-Minister Liu Yang described it as a major step in China's forensic management system to realize judicial justness.

For a long time, different judicial departments have carried out forensic studies on their own, which to a large extent undermines judicial equity.

The center was based on the Institute of Forensic Sciences under the Ministry of Justice, which, set up in 1951, has maintained advanced levels in several forensic fields. It completed the first DNA database for criminals in China last year.

Forensic working committees have already been established as branches in nine provinces and municipalities.

(People's Daily 11/21/2000)