Identity theft scandal in China university exam ignites fury

Students leave a testing site for China's national college entrance examinations, also known as the gaokao, in Nanjing in eastern China's Jiangsu Province, Tuesday, July 7, 2020. Almost 11 million students began taking China's university entrance exam Tuesday after a delay due to the virus pandemic. - AP

BEIJING, July 11, 2020 (AFP) - As millions of Chinese students sat a gruelling university entrance exam this month, stories of how an identity theft scandal robbed hundreds of previous candidates of their dreams set social media alight.

Officials in the eastern province of Shandong said a two-year investigation had found more than 280 people involved in stealing the identities of students sitting the "gaokao".