SHANGHAI, CHINA: More than 1,000 applicants were caught cheating on China's recent civil-service examination, with some using spy technology such as micro-ear pieces and wireless transmitters, state media reported yesterday.

More than 300 were caught in the act during the Nov 30 exam, while about 700 others were deemed to have cheated because their papers 'shared much conformity', the official Xinhua news agency reported.

More than half used technology provided by illegal organisations that supplied answers in exchange for money, the newspaper said.

Some high-tech cheaters used carefully disguised wireless transmitters to obtain answers, while others received radio signals through tiny ear pieces, Xinhua cited the State Bureau of Civil Servants as saying.

The bureau's announcement on the record number of cheaters caught highlights the difficulties faced by China's ruling Communist Party in stamping out rampant corruption in its ranks.

'We can hardly trust these people to cheat only on exams. What if they cheat in the exercise of public power once they are put in a public position?' the English- language China Daily wrote in an editorial yesterday.

'Such dishonesty in exams raises suspicions about their motivations to get access to public power.'

Most of the cheaters were caught in the capital, Beijing, and in the north-eastern province of Liaoning, Xinhua reported.

In a country where the civil service is very strong and the communist authorities maintain firm rule, a position in the public sector is synonymous with power.

Demand for work in the public sector is particularly strong this year as it remains a haven of stability at a time when millions of workers across China face being laid off amid the global economic crisis.

A record 775,000 people took the exam to compete for 13,500 national civil servant jobs - 57 people for every available position.

Cheaters would be disqualified from the exam and, in serious cases, be barred from retaking civil-service exams for the next five years, Xinhua reported.

However, the China Daily wrote that offenders deserved the 'severest punishment' and reminded readers that, in ancient times, imperial-exam cheats were executed.

'Both designers of the exam system and emperors, who were the top leaders of the government, knew how dangerous it would be to put power in the hands of a corrupt, immoral person,' the paper wrote. - AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE