On Campus

A case of stolen student identity

Chinese official reportedly helps his daughter get into university by stealing a classmate’s name and ID number

According to the BBC’s China correspondent James Reynolds, members of the Chinese public are outraged that a police official helped his daughter get into university by stealing another student’s identity.

The state media is reporting that the official, Wang Zhengrong, stole the name and ID number of his daughter’s classmate, who scored much higher on the country’s national college entrance exam

That classmate, Luo Caixia, had to spend another year in school in order to re-take the exam, while Wang’s child took her spot in school.

Luo eventually got a spot at another university, and is now seeking “legal measures” to solve the problem.

She says that it has been impossible for her to earn the graduation and teaching certificates she is working towards because someone else is using her name.

Reynolds has provided some translated comments on the story, which include:

  • “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.”

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