
One woman's stolen identity exposed a system of exam fraud - tartoran
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-53316895
======
zozin
This is enraging. Identity theft in the United States can be a headache, sure,
but in most cases the financial institutions are the ones taking the brunt of
the damage, and even that is probably covered by some sort of insurance
scheme. This woman had her entire life stripped away from her, not to mention
making her doubt her own abilities by implying she “failed” the exam.

How do these people live with themselves, especially the daughter of the CCP
official who assumed the stolen identity? I’m sure financial criminals justify
their behavior by telling themselves that in the end corporations suffer the
cost of the theft, but in this case a single individual was forced to bear the
brunt of this fraud for the rest of her life considering how important and
life altering a good exam score is in China.

It boggles the mind that people can live with themselves and can carry on
living with such guilt. Then again, maybe it’s my western sense of morality
that tells me the perpetrator should feel guilt. Perhaps they don’t...

~~~
thewarrior
The western sense of morality didn’t stop the admissions scandals to all top
western universities like Harvard Stanford and so on.

Chinese universities as far as I know don’t have things like institutionalized
legacy admissions.

I’d like people to reconsider the view that western societies are somehow
inherently purer or less corrupt. Often it takes different forms.

This can be seen in the way sanctions are imposed for companies using slave
labor in Xinjiang but there is not nearly as much reflection on the vast
amounts of prison labor in the US mostly of people unjustly given heavy
sentences. In fact the number of people in American prisons rivals the number
of people in Soviet gulags. Yet there is no shortage of sanctimony or moral
rectitude.

Anything wrong with western society is an unfortunate flaw in an otherwise
just system but anything wrong outside the west is a civilizational failing
that can only be fixed by adopting some theoretical enlightenment values which
the west itself struggles to practice without hypocrisy.

We can criticize others and ourselves without essentializing or casting
ourselves as inherently moral.

~~~
andreilys
Yep I’m sure that their universities have no concept of letting in children of
a major donor or political figure with influence.

~~~
thaumasiotes
Chinese universities do have this concept -- certain students are marked VIP,
so that professors will know.

But the concept of granting _admission_ based on such status, as opposed to
extending special treatment to an admitted student, is very much muted.

There are ways of getting in to a university without passing the gaokao
threshold that would ordinarily be required. But those generally involve
receiving a point boost that the college has the official discretion to offer,
or doing well on an alternative test -- someone scoring 303 out of 750 would
obviously not pass a lower discretionary threshold either.

Note that when "officials in Shandong say new processes are now in place to
make sure such incidents will not happen again", they are correct -- it's
already possible to look up both your gaokao score (this girl's score wasn't
falsified; rather, her identity was stolen) and the 分数线 that applied to you
when you applied to a school. The problem would be instantly detected[1] by
anyone who felt bitter about what happened -- and this is quite likely, since
you have a strong idea of what your gaokao score will be before you actually
take the test. (You have to, because you apply to colleges before you get your
official result.)

[1] Well, detected with probably a one-year lag.

~~~
Retric
Official VIP students... wow that’s horrifyingly corrupt. Clearly admissions
is also letting things slide, just with less official backing as fewer people
need to be involved.

In the US, collages have more or less rigorous programs rather than simply
letting people slide through.

~~~
thaumasiotes
> Official VIP students... wow that’s horrifyingly corrupt. Clearly admissions
> is also letting things slide, just with less official backing.

I do not think your conclusion follows from your premise.

~~~
Retric
You just said: “There are ways of getting in to a university without passing
the gaokao threshold that would ordinarily be required.”

VIP students is a way to communicate across the university. Otherwise
professors have no way of knowing who they need to give extra leniency to. I
know collage professors at several schools and we really have nothing
widespread like that.

~~~
Tostino
College*

Not to be a jerk, I just saw you make the same spelling mistake a couple times

------
markus_zhang
Back in the days when electronics records were not the norm there were a lot
of these things especially in less-developed provinces. Nowadays it's better
but I'd suspect there are still things similar going on.

In the less developed areas of China the so called "Cheng Guan Wu Ju Tou" (The
five masters of the town, usually includes the party secretary, the town
mayor, vice mayors and maybe a couple of other important officials e.g. the
head of the finance bureau) holds a lot of power over the general populace.
Their family members also hold other important positions and they have been
living in the same areas for maybe centuries.

Historically the central government had to rely on these local masters but
nowadays it's getting the upper hand and a lot of these things are being
reported publicly. It's kind of difficult to do the same thing (as in the BBC
report) nowadays as electronic records are everywhere.

~~~
alasdair_
>Back in the days when electronics records were not the norm there were a lot
of these things especially in less-developed provinces. Nowadays it's better
but I'd suspect there are still things similar going on.

Like some Chinese criminals with money hiring body doubles to serve their
prison term for them.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ding_zui](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ding_zui)

~~~
markus_zhang
Yeah heard that too years ago. I remembered back in maybe 5 years ago marriage
information is not shared among the provinces so technically you can marry
multiple times in different provinces and not got caught...

------
kbenson
> Until today, the imposter's colleagues still know her as Chen Chunxiu, say
> media reports. Her degree has since been revoked and she has been sacked
> from her job. A government report says she is still under investigation.

Is it nuts to anyone else that the more powerful, socially connected person
stole the poorer but better scoring person's identity for not only school, but
continued to be her professionally for years after?

I was reading and wondering what good this did if someone else got the degree,
and was flabbergasted to see that the imposter just decided to take over the
identity in perpetuity. I would assume in the west that usually only happens
when the imposter's original identity is problematic (a criminal, poor and
trying to hob-nob with elites, etc). In this case we have the child of an
obviously well connected (and I assume well-off) official willing to take over
someone else's identity.

~~~
jimmaswell
Well-off people sometimes turn to thrill seeking. Apparently financially
stable stay-at-home housewives are a big demographic in loss prevention
because they steal for fun.

~~~
kbenson
I can see that, but I also don't expect those people to take over the identity
entirely. Financially stable stay-at-home housewives have a lot of things
tying them to their real identity.

------
DevKoala
This story reminds me of the stories that were common on my country of origin
in South America. We had free high level education, but there was a system
rigged to preserve nepotism. I was in Russia for the World Cup in 2018 and
heard the same crap.

~~~
topspin
The US has evolved a similar rigging for our privileged. We supply various
obscure sports accolades that can be purchased for the children of wealthy
families to obtain admission to our leading universities. Unfortunately our
schemes have also been exposed and a number of people are being prosecuted. So
for the moment one must resort to investing in rather costly facility
construction or similar expansion projects while we develop low cost
alternatives to replace the now compromised schemes.

~~~
quadrifoliate
It's even simpler than that, the US has a codified system of nepotism in place
called legacy admissions, which has been in place for several decades [1].

> In a deposition, Rakesh Khurana, dean of the college, said a legacy
> preference can foster another kind of diversity: placing people with deep
> Harvard experience alongside those without it.

They refer to nepotism as "deep Harvard experience", that's the only
difference.

[1] [https://www.npr.org/2018/11/04/663629750/legacy-
admissions-o...](https://www.npr.org/2018/11/04/663629750/legacy-admissions-
offer-an-advantage-and-not-just-at-schools-like-harvard)

~~~
kbenson
I view the legacy stuff as a but more nuanced. Universities want to admit
people that really want to go there, and that will increase their prestige
later through some combination of espousing the benefits of that school,
becoming famous, or becoming successful. It's not hard to see how the legacy
systems tick a few of these boxes automatically, making those candidates seem
slightly better than others (if nothing else, the candidate probably really
wants this as their college over any other choices, and will likely have more
pressure from self and family to complete college and do well).

The problem then, as I see it, is not legacy consideration _helping_ people
get admitted, but legacy considerations _overriding the other criteria_. If
legacy considerations where only a 15-20% in applicant suitability, I think
most people wouldn't be that upset about it. When it leads to wholly and
obviously unsuitable people going, that's probably when the legacy system has
gone out of control.

~~~
quadrifoliate
More nuanced nepotism is...nepotism. You're basically saying that whether or
not your parents went to some school should positively influence as much as
_one-fifth_ of the consideration of whether you could go to a school or not.

That is, if you scored this in a rubric, some kid whose parents went to
Harvard would score 20 and I would score 0. That is wrong on a fundamental
level. It's a bit like anti-affirmative action.

I am fine with this system as it stands. However, it is wildly inconsistent
with the pearl-clutching top comment (I know, not you) spewing stuff about the
"Western sense of morality".

~~~
kbenson
> That is, if you scored this in a rubric, some kid whose parents went to
> Harvard would score 20 and I would score 0. That is wrong on a fundamental
> level.

Is it? Why?

I think it depends on the amount of government funding they get. For a
completely private university, is it wrong? I think it's wrong for a
university that gets a majority of its funding from the state to act this way,
but for universities that have giant billion dollar endowments? Sure, let them
manage at least some of the admissions somewhat as they would as if private.

> It's a bit like anti-affirmative action.

It's exactly like affirmative action, except to benefit the university. I
think being able to apply this on some small percentage of the students, maybe
five percent, is acceptable.

It's going to happen, why not account for it and control it rather than make
everyone involved act like it isn't happening and then we just have a vague
sense that it happens but little info and control over it?

------
leafboi
What's nuts about this how tons of people from all levels of
government/society participated in this conspiracy.

It says a lot about the general attitude of Chinese people.

(I'm chinese, btw)

~~~
system16
To be more specific, I think it says a lot about the general attitude of
people that have grown up under the CCP, and the 'take what you can get or
starve' environment they've fostered.

It's seen in other ways like lack of queuing, littering, and the general
corruption throughout all levels of bureaucracy.

The attitude is far less pervasive in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia,
or other countries with significant Chinese populations.

~~~
muleroid
I'm not sure it's fair to place the blame solely on the CCP. A lot of the less
desirable behavior stemmed from scarcity of resources, especially when the
country was poor.

Can't comment too much on corruption as I don't have much experience there,
but I have noticed things like lining up and littering get better as the
standard of living has improved over the years.

------
notwhereyouare
I'm curious as to how these tests compare to the US SAT. You can take the SAT
multiple times and submit your best attempt. In this story, the test seems one
and done. You get 1 attempt and you either get in, or you don't.

Also reminds me of the story from India like 1 or 2 years ago where a test had
faulty answers and people thought they didn't get into university because of
that

~~~
HeavenFox
These exams differ from SAT in three major ways.

First, they are offered once a year. Didn't do as well as you hope? Try again
next year.

Second, the material is significantly harder. Take math as an example. The
exam questions are a lot closer to AMC/AIME than to SAT. In fact, suppose
language is not a problem, many Chinese middle schooler would do pretty well
on SAT's math section. Also you are not allowed any calculator.

Finally, for the vast majority of students, the test score is literally the
only factor deciding whether you get into college. Basically, you will provide
an ordered list of preferences to colleges and majors, and the student with
top score's request would be satisfied first, then the second, the third, etc.

~~~
Balgair
India has similar systems as well.

One 'neat' tweak that the Indians take is the publication of the scores. You
find out how you did because your name and score are printed in the newspaper,
along with everyone else's.

So all the gossipy aunties and your folk's friends know your score and you
know the scores of everyone else in school.

The social pressure to do well is _insane_. Your score reflects on your
family, not just you.

~~~
enitihas
Publications of scores doesn't happen any more, atleast for the exams similar
to the gaokao, which would be the JEE. It happened only for localised exams
AFAIK, where almost all applicants were local, and the pool was small enough
to be printed on a newspaper. In the pre internet era, it might have been
necessary though, since it wouldn't have been possible to mail all scores and
expect perfect delivery in the rural parts of the country. But the internet
has ensured almost all test results are online now and not published openly.

~~~
Balgair
Thank you for the update!

------
dghughes
Sometimes it's no better here in the west. I know of a situation where a
Chinese student fabricated every source for a paper. Completely made up
everything. The professor saw right through it immediately and failed her. But
the university big wigs told the professor to give the student a passing
grade. The student graduated university.

~~~
optimiz3
IMO this whistle needs to be blown because as who knows how many dangerous
engineers, doctors, or whatever other safety critical professions are being
graduated.

------
hatmatrix
> The Ministry of Education has also announced that any students found to be
> involved in identity theft will not be allowed to enrol in university.

Yeah that seems like the risk for screwing someone over is not so low - same
outcome as if you hadn't committed this atrocity.

~~~
megablast
The ministry of education only has so much power.

------
justicezyx
I think this is a good opportunity to discuss on what would be the ideal
process for selecting students for higher education.

China's system is probably the fairer one compared to US. I don't know the
system at Europe India, or any other nations ranked high in intellectual
competitiveness. Would be interested in learning the details.

Additionally, conventional higher education is mostly obsolete. Technically,
one absolutely can access the same quality education outside of a typical 4
year university. That is a sea-level change compared to that in 10-20 years
ago.

Prominent institutions today primarily serve as social selection process to
find the compatible individuals and assimilate them into the elite class.

My observations identify that as obvious in US. China also have similar setup
in Tsinghua and Beijing university. Especially since Hu Jintao's presidency,
while the majority of the standing committee of CCP Politburo are from these 2
institutions. And the culture aura attached to them is also purposefully
cultivated by CCP and the government.

Now, what is the proper mechanism to prevent the small fraction of elite
institutions from inbreeding, and make sure a diverse and representative
student body be admitted into these institutions. For example, it was a huge
problem in China that the students into the better higher education
institutions have <10% from non-urban areas, while the total population has
57% in non urban areas. This number used to be >20%.

This type of inequality is the most problematic.

------
megablast
So, how well did the imposter do at her job? Maybe these exams are not a great
measure at all?

And how could you possibly repay the poor woman and her family for this?

~~~
fiblye
>So, how well did the imposter do at her job?

You're unlikely to find any accurate measure of that, since she likely has
people propping her up well into her adult life.

------
Thorrez
> At China's parliament meeting last month, there were calls for college
> admission identity theft to be criminalised. One delegate said it was "much
> more harmful than [monetary] theft".

It's not already criminalised? I would expect fraud to be illegal.

------
ak39
How can the system rely on “no response is construed as failed”?!

Bad design right there.

~~~
gene91
It's not exactly like that. For example, university official will track you
down (through phone call, through help of local official or your high school
official/teacher) if you didn't enroll. This is done to ensure people
(especially from rural areas) don't give up their admission due to
difficulties (for example, economical ones).

Obviously these doesn't help when some one takes your identity and enrolls on
your behalf.

Even if there is rejection letter. It probably wouldn't make a difference to
the subject of this article. A fake rejection can be easily fabricated
(especially if the recipient doesn't know what a real one should look like.)

Also, the subject knows his/her score. The university has limited discretion
to deny admission of people above the score threshold. At the end, it all
comes down to low social economic status and corrupted officials working
against the subject.

------
LockAndLol
> Her case is just one of 242 student identity thefts that took place in
> Shandong province between 2002 and 2009, according to recent media reports.

Either there haven't been many cases or not many have been revealed. But why
only until 2009?

> Local authorities have launched an investigation into Chen Chunxiu's case
> and 46 people have been punished.

That's a lot of people necessary to steal an identity!

~~~
wizzwizz4
Perhaps they're discovered stochastically, so the number of known recent ones
is much lower than the number of known unrecent ones.

------
viburnum
The unstated assumption in this article is that only college graduates deserve
to have a decent life.

~~~
magicsmoke
Something I've heard from Chinese people online about the difference between
the US and China is that in America, you could be a plumber/auto
mechanic/skilled trades and still have a middle-income lifestyle and a decent
amount of societal respect. In China, working with your hands puts you on the
lower rungs in society, hence everyone wants to get into college.

~~~
leafboi
The kind of cultural attitude you describe reflects the supply and demand
logistics of the economic conditions that were responsible for modern China as
it is today.

Modern China was built off the backs of Cheap Manual laborers

