In this paper, we review safety evaluation of engineering and construction projects in China and introduce four safety evaluations that are mostly used in China: safety pre-evaluation (SPE), safety evaluation on project completion (SEPC), overall safety evaluation of current status (OSECS) and special safety evaluation (SSE). Furthermore, related legal and policy trends of safety evaluation in China and the future development are also discussed here. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.