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Fran Lu

A teenager in China was detained for five days after confessing to tampering with the university application of a rival classmate, causing public outcry over “too light” a penalty.
The teenager, surnamed Xiang, and the student who was hacked, surnamed Wang, are in the same class in central China’s Hubei province.
Both were sitting this year’s National College Entrance Examination for university placement, called gaokao in China.
Police received a complaint from Wang that her online university application had been accessed and tampered with on July 2.

She said she logged into the official application system to double-check her details and saw that the universities she had selected to apply to had been removed and replaced with the words “rubbish schools”.
The police tracked the IP addresses that had used Wang’s account, leading them to Wang’s classmate Xiang, who accessed and changed her application.
Xiang confessed the next day after the police persuaded him to admit to the crime.
He admitted that he secretly took a photo of Wang’s candidate number and then tried to guess her password several times before successfully logging into her account.
Chinese news site Guancha.cn reported that Xiang’s motive for sabotaging Wang’s application was that they do not get along.
Wang was subsequently allowed to correct her application by the local higher education admission office.
Xiang was placed in administrative custody for five days as a penalty.
China’s gaokao is taken annually by around 10 million secondary school graduates and is highly competitive as students compete against each other to receive a higher education place at China’s tertiary institutes.
The university application period follows the publication of gaokao scores and is taken almost as seriously as the exam itself by students and their parents, who seek to select the best schools that match their scores.

Once the selection is made, they are not allowed to change it after the deadline and do not have a second chance to choose other universities unless they retake the exam.
Mainland social media observers have been angered by the penalty which has been described as “too light”.
“Only five days for tampering with someone’s life?” one person asked.
“This is no different from murdering someone. It could change that person’s life,” said another.
“It is true that people make mistakes, but some mistakes can never be forgiven,” said a third person.
Under China’s Law on Penalties for Administration of Public Security, a person who hacks a computer system could receive up to 10 days in detention.
Hong Daode, a professor of criminal procedure law at the China University of Political Science and Law, told Hubei Television that the case could prompt a review of the application system and how vulnerable it is to hacking.
Some online observers also suggested the application system use more complicated authentication methods, such as SMS verification and a security lockout, to prevent future hacks.


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‘Tampering with someone’s life’: anger in China over ‘too light’ penalty for teen who sabotaged online university application of rival

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Xiang is seen on security cameras at the police station handing himself over after police tracked him using his IP address. Photo: Weibo/@ObserverNetwork

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Teenager and victim are in same class and do not get along, which police say was the motive for the crime
Perpetrator punished with five days of detention, sparking widespread anger on social media


A student who confessed to hacking a rival student’s online university application form received five days in detention, causing public anger at what many say is too lenient a punishment


‘Tampering with someone’s life’: anger in China over ‘too light’ penalty for teen who sabotaged online university application of rival

Teenager and victim are in same class and do not get along, which police say was the motive for the crime Perpetrator punished with five days of detention, sparking widespread anger on social media

Teenager and victim are in same class and do not get along, which police say was the motive for the crime

Perpetrator punished with five days of detention, sparking widespread anger on social media