Cheating during exams could lead to 7 years imprisonment in China

World Today

File Pic of China’s national legal exam, taken in 2014. Photo:CFP

Students who are caught cheating during exams or hiring surrogates to take tests for them could be sentenced to up to 7 years in prison, according to an amendment to the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China, which takes effect from Nov. 1.

A report in Xinhua on Sunday said that a supplementary clause, added in August 2015, to Section 284 of the Criminal Law Code stipulates that those who cheat or plot to cheat during national exams and surrogate exam takers will face fixed-term incarceration of not more than 3 years.

In serious cases, however, offenders shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from anywhere between three to seven years, and will be liable to pay a fine.

The amendment comes following increasing number of cheating cases being reported during major entrance exams in the country, despite efforts by local education departments and security officials to crack down on it.

In fact, in some provinces in the country, there have been reports of organized gangs running an underground network of surrogate exam takers.

Story by CCTV NEWS and Xinhua.