Chinese exam fraud ring helped candidates cheat their way to government-funded jobs

An organised ring that helped people in the central Chinese province of Henan cheat their way to government-sponsored jobs has been exposed.

An official investigation concluded that a province-wide exam held to fill the posts last month had been compromised by “large-scale, organised cheating” with suspects paying officials overseeing the exam to obtain test papers and the correct answers in advance, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Friday.

The case was the latest in a string of similar crimes as graduates face increasingly fierce competition to get jobs in the civil service or other government-sponsored posts amid faltering economic growth.

The jobs at stake were part of an initiative to combat youth employment by creating temporary grass-roots posts in fields such as education, agriculture, healthcare and rural revitalisation. In Henan alone, more than 3,000 such positions were available.

Although they are not civil service jobs, those filling the posts will receive stipends from the local authorities.

When the results of the exam were released, they were greeted with widespread scepticism because dozens of successful candidates received significantly higher marks than their competitors.

Some of the successful candidates scored more than 80 points out of 100, while the second-placed candidates were languishing in the 60s.