The annual college entrance examination in mainland China, known as the “humanity-crushing” exam, has begun on June 7th this year with 13.42 million students flooding into examination halls. Mobile phone signals around the exam sites have been massively blocked and internet access cut off. Telecommunications companies claim this is to prevent cheating, but analysts believe it may be an excessive measure or preparation for wartime network disruptions.
China’s annual college entrance exam is the largest in the world. The Ministry of Education of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reported a record-breaking 13.42 million examinees this year, marking the sixth consecutive year with over 10 million registrations.
The exam started on June 7th, following the reforms in the new college entrance examination system. Most regions nationwide have a 2- to 3-day exam period, while a few areas like Beijing will continue for 4 days. In addition to the traditional exam regulations of “no noise, no entertainment, no traffic,” a new rule of “no signals” has been added this year.
According to reports by Zhongjin Online, during the exam period from June 7th to 9th, the three major telecommunication operators in China adjusted some communication signals to combat cheating and create a fair exam environment.
It’s mentioned that high-power signal jammers will be activated at all exam sites nationwide, and the three major telecommunications operators will also proactively reduce the strength of 5G signals around the exam sites, leading to weakened or disrupted signals for mobile phone users in those areas.
Citizens may encounter issues such as no signal, weak signal, call failures, intermittent calls, and unsuccessful message sending and receiving during this time.
A resident in Shanghai received the following text message:
The resident mentioned that he received it on the afternoon of June 4th and found it unusual as he had not noticed similar mobile messages during previous college entrance exams, feeling it was the first time. Such abnormality in China during the exam period creates a “martial law” atmosphere.
Residents in Hebei also received similar messages from telecommunication companies. One resident noted stricter controls in the Beijing perimeter. Similar exam-related mobile messages have been received in the past two years.
However, a lawyer from Zhengzhou in Henan told that his phone has never experienced signal blocking during the exam period, but he had heard about it. The telecommunication companies did not send any signal blocking messages to all users.
A Beijing resident, Mr. Wang, who graduated from a Beijing university years ago, revealed that the local radio management department would block all wireless signals around the exam sites.
Many people have expressed complaints online, questioning the necessity of such measures that disrupt networks and close internet cafes, suggesting extreme actions like stopping the earth’s rotation for three days for the sake of the exam.
On Weibo, many netizens discuss the situation, with some comparing it to the aftermath of a pandemic as a continuation of the authoritarian control by local governments. Several netizens expressed anger, proposing radical ideas like a nationwide three-day silence or even suggesting everyone refrain from breathing for three days.
Mr. Wang mentioned that within the three days of July 7th, 8th, and 9th, all government departments clear the way for the college entrance exam. The entire society undergoes extensive preparations for the exam period.
Mr. Wang also noted cases where people were permitted to interview exam candidates by foreign media through Beijing municipal authorities’ foreign affairs office, but were later confronted by National Security officers who restricted their activities, threatening a student not to participate in foreign media interviews if they wished to enter university.
The college entrance exam papers are classified as highly confidential documents, where exam papers are considered confidential until unsealed. The papers are transported by China Post under the protection of armed police from the Ministry of Education’s exam center in Beijing to various provincial prisons for printing. The papers are then distributed to education examination institutes by postal vehicles within each province, guarded by national security personnel and delivered to municipal education examination institutes.
“On the day before the exam, which is June 6th, all the papers are already near the exam sites at the local education examination institute. They have a specific confidential room for them, and there are personnel designated to oversee the papers with 360-degree surveillance, rigorous security measures,” Mr. Wang described.
“When entering the exam site, there are three security checks, additionally requiring facial recognition. You need to present your ID and go through facial recognition to enter, followed by another security check inside the exam site. Cheating becomes nearly impossible, especially with AI-powered monitoring making it even more difficult,” Wang explained.
Regarding the CCP’s interference with mobile signals at exam sites, historian Li Yuanhua in Australia remarked, “I think it’s unnecessary and exaggerated. It requires an organized group to cheat, not individuals. You need inside coordination within the exam site to leak or transmit answers, which is troublesome.”
“Furthermore, it’s addressing the symptom not the root cause. If cheating has occurred, there could be other methods too, right? In the past, even now, in schools, I could rent a place and directly reveal the exam papers, right?”
Scholar Li Hengqing from the Washington Institute for Information and Strategic Studies in the United States suggested the authorities may be testing the effectiveness of such interference. Ordinary disruptions couldn’t work as people rely on their mobile phones, suddenly losing signal would result in complaints. “The network companies cannot afford such disruptions, they have reputations to uphold. By warning you in advance, they can avoid this risk.”
Li Hengqing stated, “During the exam period, they can openly test the impact of such interference on a large scale. It serves a practical purpose.”
He also added, “This appears to be a real-world test, not just for the exam, but why such a large-scale signal interference? It’s strangely peculiar.”
He further emphasized that China’s society lacks a rule of law. Handling cases of cheating or leaks during exams should be thoroughly investigated without the need for signal disruptions. “If the papers are sent to a certain level, and there is extensive supervision at the exam site, then such disruptions imply flaws in your system or a lack of trust.”
China’s college entrance exam system has faced criticisms. Mr. Wang noted, “I believe China’s education selection system has many significant flaws. The authorities are so afraid that for three days they strictly control university students from leaving the campus to prevent impersonation.”
In the past twenty years, China has consistently increased university admissions. Official data from the past two years indicates a national acceptance rate of around 90% in the college entrance exam, granting most candidates a chance to enter university.
However, admission to prestigious universities proves challenging. In 2024, the planned enrollment for undergraduate programs in China was only 4.5 million, allowing roughly one-third of examinees to attend undergraduate institutions.
According to data compiled by The Paper last year, in mainland China, the chances of entering a first-tier university are only around 10%, and elite universities listed in the “985 Project” have admission rates below 2%, while Tsinghua and Peking universities have an acceptance rate of about 0.5%.
“It’s extremely harsh! I can only describe it as brutal. The college entrance exam is truly a severe and extreme test for students,” said Lucy, a high school teacher who moved from a small town in Henan to the United States, speaking to Radio Free Asia last year.
In Lucy’s view, China’s exam-centric education system centered around the college entrance exam is utterly ineffective, and students resent it deeply. After the exam, students celebrate by tearing their books apart, showing their disdain for the system. It’s as if they want to destroy everything related to it and never look back, indicating the extreme toll it takes on their humanity.
For students, getting into university is a significant challenge, and finding a job after four years of study is equally difficult. The phenomenon of “graduate unemployment” is becoming increasingly severe.
Official data last June showed that the unemployment rate among youth aged 16 to 24 soared to a record high of 21.3%. Subsequently, the CCP stopped reporting this unemployment rate. It was only reinstated in January this year using revised statistical methods that exclude students, yet the unemployment rate within that age group remained at 14.9%. The accuracy of official data is questioned due to consistent concealment by the authorities.
Scholar Zhang Dandan from Peking University previously pointed out that China’s youth unemployment rate hit a peak of 46.5% in March last year, significantly higher than the official figures released.
Statistics indicate that the employment rate for 2023 graduates was only 55.7%, the lowest in recent years. The 2024 graduates face even more intense competition and challenging job prospects.