Education authorities in eastern China say they smashed a ring that used high-tech radio transmitters and receivers to help students cheat in the National College Entrance Exams.

The ring involved at least 33 people, including nine high school graduates who sat the exams last month, providing answers to questions through the Internet and radios, said officials in Zhejiang Province.

The cheating was discovered when a surveillance patrol vehicle picked up radio transmissions near the Yongkang No.1 Middle School, where exams were being held, the Zhejiang-based City Express News reported yesterday.

Law enforcement officers caught 15 people in a coffee bar across a river from the school. The others were caught in another two operations.

They allegedly admitted they had transmitted test answers to students who were sitting the exam. The suspects outside the exam site were parents or relatives of the nine students.

Three college students from Yongkang City are also being investigated for allegedly providing test answers via the Internet from southwest China's Guizhou Province.

One of the students surnamed Xu allegedly said he heard the answers could be provided for 12,000 yuan (US$1,740) to 16,000 yuan. Xu is also alleged to have paid 1,600 yuan for the specially-designed communication system, including a transmitter, receiver, and earphone.

Xu allegedly said he used the device in the first test on Chinese, but did not use it again because he had heard some had been caught cheating.

Under college entrance exam rules, cheating examinees will be denied college entrance for two years.

(Shanghai DailyJuly 7, 2008)