China busted about one thousand exam sitters, the highest in recent years, for trying to cut corners to be civil servants by cheating in the annual central government civil servant exam.

More than 300 exam sitters were caught cheating on site in the exam rooms on November 30, while another 700 were busted after their exam paper were found to have "shared much conformity", the State Administration of Civil Service said on Sunday.

The cheaters were mainly found in the northeastern province of Liaoning and the capital city of Beijing.

They would be disqualified for the exam, and, in serious cases, be barred from the civil servant exams for both central and local governments for the next five years, it said.

In China's highly competitive national exams, where chances of success are very slim, many applicants, especially the less academically inclined, are lured to cheat.

A total of 775,000 people actually took the exam which qualifies them for 13,500 national civil servant jobs. That means 57 people were competing for one position.

In an extreme case, one position with the China Disabled Persons' Federation had more than 4,700 applicants.

Hi-tech items, such as neatly disguised wireless transmitters, are becoming new ways to cheat on the civil servant exam, the administration said, adding that some cheaters even plant micro earplug in their ears before the exam so that they can receive radio broadcasting from their accomplices during the exam.

The country has already set up a database which contains the information of people caught cheating on the civil servant exam.

Cheaters' names and identification card numbers will be put into a database to serve as a recruiting reference for central and local governments. Also on the list will be information from those caught violating recruitment rules.

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2009)