Most of the population of China - one-fifth of all people living today - owes its genetic origins to Africa, an international scientific team has reported in research that undercuts any claim that modern humans may have originated independently in China. Published in the United States in the Tuesday edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study is the product of the Chinese Human Genome Diversity Project, a consortium of seven major research groups in China, and the Human Genetics Center at the University of Texas, Houston. It was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.