In this study, we review research articles on “torture”, “criminal interrogation” and related topic published in Chinese language academic journals over the past 15 years (1994-2008)11 as well as recent literature on Chinese policing and criminal procedure in English, mainly written by Chinese authors, with a view to summarize the current knowledge of what actually happens with regard to police torture in criminal investigations and what is known about its causes. The study concludes by suggesting some research directions for the future. This review reports on a selection of the 1082 articles12 analysed and therefore cannot be called all inclusive and comprehensive. Nevertheless, in our selection, we have tried to grasp the diversity in all the academic literature studied and have discussed the major trends based on the analyses made.