A case of stolen identity
What do you do when one of your classmates is smarter than you? You can try to copy their homework. You can sit back and hope that they fail miserably in life. Or, you can steal their exam results, their name, and their entire identity as well.
The victim - Luo Caixia - lost her identity when a classmate stole her scores in the national college entrance exam. This exam can be the most important single moment in a young person's life - what you get in this test decides whether or not you can get into university. So, if you get cheated out of your results (and your identity as well) you'll probably be pretty angry.
Here's a range of comments we've translated from Chinese websites...
"Well, if you want to start investigating all the faking problems created by the powerful and the rich, there's too many to check."
"This is nothing. Two of my high school classmates didn't get good enough scores, but they managed to fake their results so that they could be accepted by universities. Could it be better than this? This is a world that belongs to the powerful people."
"I'm sympathetic to what Luo Caixia is going through, but I don't think she should seek revenge and push the other family. The official already said sorry, why does she have to push them off the cliff? The university graduates nowadays are just about revenge, it doesn't solve any problems."
"If someone really looks into this, I bet there're people who just do this as a profession, faking people's identity."
What do you think?
I’m 
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~39~RS~)
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Pretty balanced for once. Although as for the comments... why don't you just let us give them instead of having to take some from the Chinese website?
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We have a Chinese friend who told us she was going to 'lend' her Master's degree to a friend in order that the friend could gain more points for immigration to a Western country. She was quite suprised at our reaction. Cheating is obviously not considered wrong by many Chinese.
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I like the fact that youve translated the thoughts of Chinese in China on here. This will provide a nice contrast with the torrent of the West has identify theft too' which you are about to receive. China has problems and we know about them in the West. Please try to accept this fact.
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"why don't you just let us give them instead of having to take some from the Chinese website?" Because James wants to get the opinions of typical Chinese in China, not over-nationalistic privileged overseas Chinese.
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What's new? I'm not that surprised. That guy won on 'the apprentice' after he faked a qualification on his CV. He didn't even bother stealing or borrowing one, and just made one out of thin air.
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The Chinese are the Chinese. This is the way it has always been. The Communist, like all those before them, have their short period of reform and then Chinese "ways of doing things" reasserts itself. This has been this way for a 1000 years. You can read in history that after a short time the Exam system became corrupted and the rich bought passing evaluations under the Confucion system of education. The methods may be modern by the process is very old. No form of government has yet to be successful in overcoming the organization of Chinese internal affairs. Moral philosophy and personal integrity is so important in Chinese culture because there is so little of it in practice at any official level. But others should remember that because this process is so ingrained in Chinese society that those commiting such acts view this as a competitive edge and some push the issue too far, but on the whole, this is how the Chinese are organized and the people, although not liking abuse, tolerate and accept this as the way things are done in China.
These are the post Cultural Revolution children and post-Tinneman Sqaure. This is not just a first generation of children with college degrees, many have parents who do not read or write. Chinese, being a practical people, want access to good jobs so, that if needed, they will have the influence to get their children into a good university when more academically qualified do not. This is China.
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I have lived in China now for over five years. China as many know is in catch up mode. In this catch up process the Chinese (in fact I feel most of Asia) put huge pressure on their children to perform and in the process steals their childhood. I have taught in several cram schools and the poor kids starting from preschool age attend classes often 6 days a week until late in the evening.They study English, violin, math, chess,piano,Japanese. (I am talking one student doing all these extra studies). Lately I have heard local parents complaining about the teachers because they let their students fall asleep in class and only teach the kids that sit in the front row. They do this because they know the students will do better at the cram schools. I find it quite amusing to be at the local train station at 9:30 to 10 at night and find most of the people are primary and secondary students coming home. Who drives them to do this? Their parents who have just recently come out of poverty. What has this created? Millions of kids with very good memories, and good at passing tests. But often they get to 30 and haven't worked a day in their lives, do not know how to have fun (never experienced it, other than a video games), and the opposite to their parents goals, are not very well rounded but emotionally stunted adults. The kids cant cook, hang a picture, change a tire, iron a shirt. On the plus side some parents get some big face. True the west has it own massive problems from being too liberal, but seeing both sides first hand, I think China has created the bigger monster. They have so many people, have such a distorted education system, not enough jobs to go around, backed up with a culture hobbled by "big face", there are not enough diplomas in the world to fix it. In many ways I feel sorry for China, they got going too late in the game, they have missed the boat and there will never be another one to pull into port.
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Identity theft guilty always shows they the lesser wishing they were more like someone else in all ways to scam. Japanese policy of fraud is a good one, burning. Prosecution of stalking, emulating, fake ID spending from mail theft and tampering along with extreme plastic surgery must be more obvious to deter .
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Well,I am a freash girl in China.I had the college entrance exam last year. In my opinion and In my personal experience,this kind of thing really exists in today's society.But ,what I want to claim,it doesn't happen so frequently.In China,about ten million students will attend this exam.Just a few of them who are really poor in study will choose this method.Maybe the number of this illegal acts will make British friends puzzled,but allow for the total number of examinee,you will understand why we students don't consider it as a fatal problem in education.
But,of cause,most Chinese are very disgusted with this matter.In China,relevant rules of exam has further improved recent years,especial the Monitoring system.You will not be allowed to participate in college entrance examination three years if you have found cheating in\before or after exam.The publishment is serious.
Mr Reynolds,I really wonder whether you have read all the comments of this news or whether you just choose several of them.I have read quite a few of this kind of news.The comments are verious.Most of them will sympathize with the victims and condemn of such acts.Other will complain about the government's dereliction of duty in management.Some will hold a pessimistic attitude of this kind of thing .But in your extract,I don't see the other voice.
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I like that four Chinese's comments.
Because the comments were typical and of what Chinese would thought.
However, as a Chinese myself, I should say that there must be some comments sound like more Westernised or "Positive".
What I meant was not blamed anybody , but just believed the situation they faced were quite frustrated. Try to understand and always give us some time to change.
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If I were the party who had to steal other's identity to be admitted into university, I would be ashamed of myself for my whole life, my conscience would devastate me. I can't even begin to imagine what a life or death exam it must be for the youths in China. What else can drive a person to do this?
The underlying problem must be tackled. Somehow there should be an overhaul of the education system in China. Logic points to increasing the quota for university admission to dampen the uncompromising competitiveness. This way more students can have a chance for higher education as well.
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Stealing a pupil's identity and exam results can only be done by a third party OUTSIDE of the exam room.
Apart from the burglary committed by the parents of rich offspring, they are obviously bribing or paying a computer villain to transfer the identity.
So much for Chinese socialism/communism !
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The sense of guilt instilled in western society by Judeo-Christian traditions is not present in Chinese society. The have a different system of morality. For the Chinese it has much more to do with shame, which is the humiliation of others catching him in the act, as opposed to guilt, which is felt by one's knowing he has done something wrong. In other words, they justify it by believing they can get away with it.
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No worse than American recommendation-letter system's open cheating.
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From the comments you translated and posted, it gives the sense that the majority of the cheating is being performed by the wealthy and influential citizens. If this is true, then this scares me more than the cheating itself. Using wealth to corrupt what is suppose to be a fair system for all and gain an advantage while denying opportunities for the less wealthy is how revolutions begin. History is full of examples.....The French Revolution, Russian Revolution, and I believe also the revolution in China that placed Mao in charge.
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"What do you think?"
I'm thinking, please don't pick and choose comments from the internet to publish. Like statistics, you can make them mean whatever you want.
As for the news story, it's pretty interesting, I read the original article first. Not sure what comment I can give. Cheatings cheating in my book, wherever it happens
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Those comments from the chinese website. You blatantly picked the worst ones to make China look like a bunch of cheaters. Disgusting.
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to wccsailor: Cheating is obviously considered wrong by many Chinese!
your idea result from very limited circumstances, I just learned that there is bigest fraud immigration agency runned by three non- chinese been discovered. they submmit thousands of fake documnents to
homeoffice for thousands of illegal settlements in the UK. and their clients are non- chinese as well.
I even not think they are considered right to Cheat. think about live, and be normal person, before your make your judgements.
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These comments from Chinese website might confuse some westerners because they were told that any criticism against CCP regime will be blocked by the internet "great wall" or the author will be put into prison. Are these comments faked?
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Crooks are everywhere.
China is no exception. China has no monopoly, either.
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Of course Miss Luo should get some legal help. She is still young and what will happen without her real identity when she is applying for jobs in the future? She needs to get her identity back. Frankly speaking, if one could not get good enough scores, it's no big deal. Work hard in a way that you will be proud of yourself or you will always live in the shadow of cheating.
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Fundamentally, it is a matter of development. If the GDP per capita for Chinese is in the top ten (it is 104th in 2008), which means they have rich social and natural resources, this kind of things, like corruption, will less likely to happen.
All the bad news in china actually can be seen widely in poor countries regardless democratic or not.
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I'm not sure this selection of comments is representative of the general sense of outrage expressed by the online community (and yes, the CHINESE online community!). I think it's sad that some people feel that such abuse of power is inevitable; however, I think that there are plenty of people clamoring for the victim's rights. Yes, yes, China, like everybody else, has some pretty big problems--but the fact that this guy has been caught and that the victim has some means of reclaiming her rightful position is a step in the right direction.
To wccsailor: As an elementary school student in the Chinese system, I never got the sense that cheating was an acceptable means to achieve a good grade. I remember feeling guilty for years for an instance where I yielded to momentary weakness and glanced over at a classmate's exam paper (and I didn't even manage to see anything!). Your impression of "Cheating is obviously not considered wrong by many Chinese" could not be further from the truth (and actually, pretty darn offensive).
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Goodness! Money lets you buy your way to success in China? Quite unlike the West, then.
OK, identity theft by the children of the better-off isn't yet an issue here - just wait till we've those identity cards and the battery of ever-so-secure personal data that goes with them.
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I am expecting some comment like 'the west have a lot of identity theft case too, why did you only point at China?'
Let's wait and see.
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dare I say the translated comments aren't even close to the typical ones. Are you trying to suggest Chinese are submissive to authorities without a sense of right and wrong, by hand-pick comments suppporting your view?
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Some comments from Chinese websites? What a surprise! Do Chinese have freedom of expression after all?
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I feel sorry for the Chinese students who have to study for 12 years just for this precious university exam entrance ticket.
I have been there and done it. Why must the education department in China set the standard of Math/Science as well as the entrance marks so high? Not every student wishes to become a scientist or engineer. I have seen so many students get turned away by Universities because they could not meet these high standards, but many of them still have great potentials.
Teenagers should not be put under such pressure and be allowed to enjoy their teenage years, without too much burden of academics.
Let them have the chance of tertiary education and study the professions that they enjoy. Why should a persons potential be decided by his/her high school academics.
International research shows that people who do great in life are academic achievers during their tertiary education, NOT during their high school years.
Education department is making decisions too soon for these young people.
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The high university entrance mark is mainly caused by high volume of student, with little high standard tertiary education entity.
Therefore the few high standard university only takes the cream of the crop, leaving many others without any hope of entrance.
I believe, the government should put more attention on develop more high standard university to accommodate our students who wish to obtain tertiary education.
Generally, Chinese families value their children's education on top of the list. Thus the competition is very high. Some family do not wish to bury their kids potential in this cruel education system, and choose to send them overseas, where competition is less aggressive. Thats why so many overseas Chinese students although with many language barriers still succeed in their tertiary education and future career.
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Hi Kerrymunroe
I agree 100% with what you mentioned in your comment. Parents, school and the education system is driving these poor kids to the edge.
Something interesting I would like to mention:
Most of my western schoolmates also do not know how to cook, iron or hang pictures equilibrium. Wonder where they spent their extra time, while the Chinese are studying piano, Japanese and math. Mostly they are stuck in clubs and pubs. Not sure it's the best choice either.
Some of them don't even know how to change tires, even though most of tertiary students drives a car of some sort, so what is their excuse. At least most of Chinese students don't have the luxury of cars.
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It is just an isolated identity theft case, why the big fuss about Chinese educational system and morality?!
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I have studied at both Oxford and Tsinghua universities. I personally found it easier to get into the former.
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This is a pretty big problem, and quite difficult to crack down on. My local friends and students in Xi'an had all kinds of stories about rich students using all kinds of underhanded means of changing grades, getting documents and degrees forged, etc. There was a mix of outrage and grudging acceptance on their part, mostly coming down to, the population's huge, competition is fierce, the rich have the connections, study hard and get on with it.
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To 29
Calm down Beijing 2008, youve been asking for views from the Chinese community on this blog for a while. Now youve got it you can stop gloating:
To 2
Being at a university with a large Chinese population, I dont think the cheating is any more endemic amongst the Chinese than it is among the English population.
From what Ive heard from my Chinese teacher describing her grandsons school day (brutal, thats the best word I can do to sum it up) I can understand the desire to cheat! Can somebody ell me: is the pressure to achieve so much cultural or because of the lack of good universities?
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This does happen everywhere. You may have noticed that last year the world banking community,investors and politicans almost,or yet to be determined, destroyed the global economy. Corruption is at every level in every country,it is only a matter of the particular poison your society has chosen to swollow. Funny how none of the bankers, etc. have been subjected to public exposure, in fact they want to be seen as heroes for managing the mess they created. I hope the Chinese government will provide this young woman with the oppotunities she deserves. It is the ancient philosophers that warned of the world that has been created. No moral compass and the ship gets lost. Does anyone really feel any more secure then during the times of the Warring States? Time has passed, but mankind has not changed, we are but one half step out of the cave. Note: Please help the people in Sichuan.
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Sophia 1412: I think most are concerned about the process and the pressure being placed on this entire generation in China. The leadership is asking great sacrifice for the mistakes they made, and while most students work extremely hard the door is opened wide for those with connections. I wish you the best and hope that your life is successful and you find happiness. There are indviduals and there are systems, bad individuals can be dealt with but bad systems are much harder to change.
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In China you prove your identity by using your ID card. It obviously didn't work very well. UK is introducing ID card for some strange reason... Maybe you should suggest to the PM that this ain't gonna work?
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@ (#9 kerrymunroe): it's too early to jump into your "boat" conclusion. When observing too close, an observer might loose perspectives. Attitude dictates when it comes to the success of an entity, be it an individual or a nation. The truth of the matter is that, according Churchill at least, "Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts". Give it 10 to 20 more years, i.e., another generation of youngsters, we will see how China turns its feature or asset, population, into a big advantage through education if there's no large political and/or natural destruction.
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@ some other commentors ,
Sure, here's also a platform to make oneself heard in the sense of the freedom of speech/press. Yet, after all, Reynolds is a journalist by trade or a whistle-blower to certain extend. He presents information processed through his eyes and his mind. He is NOT an arbitrator in any sense. Readers/commentors might as well adjust our own expectation.
Plus what's rush to be defensive.
More importantly, reading through this blog, I don't see anything wrong about getting motivated to self-improvement. Be it patriotic or nationalistic, the labels don't matter as long as one gets motivated and turns that into some positive action. After all, "Study to the rise of China" is individually a good thing too!
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I've had similar experience in China (slightly different plot though, which wasn't about the college entrance exam and I wasn't the one who stole, most importantly).
It is not uncommon some might say... You look back and think and understand the guys who stole your results are actually - not that powerful. It is not because of the fact that it is difficult to be me, more because - the powerful ones could get a real-life doctorate straight away, which, is easy enough in a society that interprets the seeking of truth and justice - as revenge.
Not long ago I picked a business card stuck on a door of an apartment, bold ugly red characters poorly printed on the cheapest available paper in white, boasting eye-openning products ranging from driving license, university degrees to marriage certificates. However, there is something provocative on the back, a slogan saying "you name it, we fake it".
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I think it's a very worrying case, but also a reminder that sunlight is the strongest antiseptic. As long as China has a political system that does not allow a free media, citizenry and civil society to probe it's inner workings, then this will happen again and again.
Not that such a system would make all corruption cease - but I note that 7 of the 10 least corrupt countries in the world are also ranked as being some of the most democratic, according to the Corruption Perceptions Index and the Democracy Index. Food for thought for those who decry 'Western' influences as being corrupting.
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While the identity theft is really bad, is exam cheating anything specific to China? I don't think so. Hiring people to write one's exam thesis by wealthy, but less gifted students (or their parents) is not seldom in the West. I earned some of my living for a time giving such service while being unemployed after my doctor thesis and having a family to feed. Clearly, this is corruption, yet this seems more specific to a market economy. That a local official abuses his power to promote his daughter is more third world like. With us, money does the trick.
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James:
What do you think? It makes me very mad...for what happen to this young lady regarding having her Identity stolen.....
~Dennis Junior~
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I have been to this Chinese website and there was this girl who denounced a Chinese student who studied in a London university a 'scammer''.
So basically she was trying to 'buy' a degree certificate from this guy who runs a certificate-production business. She paid him a few thousand pounds but once she paid, she'd never heard from this guy again. So she posted the picture of this 'scammer' and some of his personal details, just to remind everybody to 'avoid' this guy.
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Hi yearnhawk
you wrote:
"Fundamentally, it is a matter of development. If the GDP per capita for Chinese is in the top ten (it is 104th in 2008), which means they have rich social and natural resources, this kind of things, like corruption, will less likely to happen.
All the bad news in china actually can be seen widely in poor countries regardless democratic or not.
I don't agree with you, maybe you are not familiar with chinese history, even in the Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty the richest period in history and be the richest country in the world at that time, there are still lots of corruption happening.
It's not because of rich social and natural resources, it's because of the lack of supervision.
If the government's supervision system is work efficiently, is there anyone dare to corrupt?
That's the deep-seated reason chinese person is so angry.
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#heyone,
You must spend a significant proportion of your time scouring the internet/news pages to find anything you can that puts China in a bad light.
#42 Aremay,
You raise an interesting, but ultimately futile, point. A free media would only have detected this incident, it would not have prevented it.
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It is uncommon in modern China but never come to mind that will fuel a great debate as did here. I think it is extension of chronic arch problem of corruptions in China.
We know the forefathers of Chinese were the ones who first to introduce the system of examination the rest of world later copied. It became an important mean to select meritorious person for the post of civil servant then. I don't remember hearing any record of cheating or stealing other's hard labor in ancient time to such an extend as in the case highlighted by Jame's latest article.
I think it's high time for the Chinese people to reflect what they really had become after 50 years of CCP rule or misrule despite the economic success which too have many unanswered questions. Who else we blame other than the party who misled the mass into many mad revolutions for decades and paid the price in the coins traditional Chinese virtues that now many trying to revive.
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Well, when we say cheating in exams is not that uncommon in China, please do remember China has a huge population which leads to severe competition in the job market. A bachelor degree is not a competitive edge, it is a "must have" when you apply for any job other than pure physical labor.
But China has neither time nor resources to build enough universities for a whole generation. That's why some people cheat and why almost all children in China are deprived of their childhood. It's a survival competition and they are facing jungle rules.
Yes China has a greatly distorted education system, everybody konws it. Do you believe we don't want to change it? or we don't konw our children are unhappy? But what can you suggest when you have so big population and so few resources?
Yes cheating is a part of life in China, and we don't really like it even when we tolerate it. We know it's human nature in jungle rules. And as the latest news told me, the victim of the identity theft is taking back everything step by step and the diploma and teaching certificate of the official's daughter, who stole that identity, have been revoked.
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To 52. At 12:18pm on 11 May 2009, beijing_2008 wrote:
#heyone,
You must spend a significant proportion of your time scouring the internet/news pages to find anything you can that puts China in a bad light.
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Of course he must do,because the most of "disharmonious" things in chinese websites had been banned.
#42 Aremay,
You raise an interesting, but ultimately futile, point. A free media would only have detected this incident, it would not have prevented it.
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A unfree media would only find one "Luo Caixia" or others who suffered similar "incident" with "permission",can it covers TianAnMeng anniversary next month?Can it covers a corruption of officers who have a position higher than nomarch?
And is that true "A free media would only have detected this incident, it would not have prevented it." ?According your logic ,laws also can't prevent crimes?en, yes,that's "futile".
I don't wonder why a university student would said that,especially for someone who lived in BeiJing and his familly can afford him study abroad.
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I graduated from a UK university and I can tell there are cases british students cheat in the axams too. We all knew it because we were lucky to see they get caught. Haven't we heard too much interneting phishing or worth-multimillion-frauds every year? In the views of many people on this board which James aims to establish that the Chinese / their society does not have the morality of feeling guilty for cheating. In my opinion, if minor cases should be regarded as general, the West and its society can't exampt from it either.
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To 60. At 00:50am on 19 May 2009, longriver2009 wrote:
Do not try to confuse corruptions in education ststem with cheats in exam.
And,do not try to mislead people with that the author is intending to say chinese are dishonest.
As a conclusion,since you graduated from an UK university,we might assume you haven't experienced the university entrance exam in China.How can you have the right to say that is a "minor case"?
Maybe we even can infer that you are the children from an officer's or a merchant prince's family because only them benefit from the ill ststem
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This problem goes deeper than people realize. If say a nuclear scientist has his identity stolen, his school transcripts, etc. the perpetrator could get into restricted sites, cause terrorist mayhem like a nuclear disaster that kills potentially millions of people. This lax policing is very serious. In USA, people who who ran the birth certificate office sold numerous birth certificates for many years. If they can get into places like that or the passport office, they're getting into even more sensitive areas of business and government. Imagine a c rated student stealing a surgeon's identity then replacing your kidney. This happens in the teaching profession a lot. Once as an assistant, a substitute teacher came and couldn't teach the algebra class, I had to teach the class. On other occasions, I've seen very bright students shut down by teachers because they can't recognize a child's brilliance. This is no joking matter. It's a travesty. Maybe in China this isn't a big problem but its a huge problem in America.
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While I believe this kind of corruption happens every year, I doubt it is happening at a large scale. In my opinion, majority of people still trust the system.
If anybody is interested, there is a really good movie "Lies in City"(), a heartbroken story about how victim's life got changed after her exam result was stolen by daughter of her village leader. It was directed by Wang Chen'guang () and made in 2006. I have to say that it is one of the best movie I have ever seen.
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