Five young people believed have been involved in cheating during the recent national college entrance examination were detained by police in central China's Henan Province on Monday. They are charged with stealing state secrets.

A college sophomore in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, was also arrested.

The charge of stealing state secrets refers to the theft of exam questions from testing sites.

According to police sources from Zhenping County in Henan, the five suspects, including some middle school students and jobless juveniles, later sold answers to exam questions to test-takers.

Several cell phones and other equipment used for transmitting answers were confiscated by authorities as evidence. They were found at the home of Shao Jiang, one of the suspects. Shao is believed to have played a leading role in the cheating scam.

During the examination earlier this month, some students in Zhenping were caught receiving answers sent to them through mobile phones.

The public security department there received a tip indicating that some people were making money by using the Internet and telecommunications to provide answers during the exam. An investigation was launched.

The national entrance exam, held from June 7 to 9, is a critical event in China. If a student receives high enough scores, he or she can be admitted to a prestigious university, which will be a vitally important stepping stone for his or her future career.

According to the Beijing News, two of the five suspects succeeded in arranging for substitutes to enter the exam site, sit as exam takers and leave the room with questions before the testing was over.

A group of senior middle school students waited outside, ready to quickly work out answers to the questions. The answers were then sent back to other exam-sitters' cell phones via Internet links.

Each copy of such answers was reportedly priced at up to 1,000 yuan (US$120). The parent of one student was quoted as saying that the answers were not totally accurate.

(China Daily June 16, 2004)