After finishing university in July 2010, Wang started working for a major state-owned firm in China's northeastern industrial city of Shenyang.

His peers viewed it as a smooth, successful move as graduates nowadays have difficulty finding such stable jobs, especially with government-run entities.

However, just two months before he landed the role, Wang was a criminal suspect, a stigma that would usually have hamstrung his job search due to the likelihood of prospective employers checking readily accessible details of candidates' legal pasts.

But, in a move set to be replicated across the country soon thanks to a major change in the law, the Heping District People's Procuratorate (HDPP) in Shenyang decided to drop the charges and "seal" the records.

This "sealing" saw Wang's criminal record and the details of the case made confidential -- a policy increasingly being adopted by procuratorial organs to facilitate the transition of juvenile offenders back to a normal life. (Xinhua avoids using the subject's real name to protect his identity.)

China's newly amended Criminal Procedure Law, approved at the annual legislative session this month and taking effect at the start of next year, has formally included articles on "conditionally dropping charges against non-serious juvenile offenders" and "sealing juvenile records."