BEIJING: Top scorer may lose Peking place for lying

A talented Chinese student who won a place at the prestigious Peking University may not be enrolled for lying about his ethnic status during the national college entrance examination, Xinhua news agency reports. He Chuanyang scored 659, the highest in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. But the local admission office said he and 30 other students had falsely claimed 20 additional test points because of their "ethnic minority status".

Feng Zhiyue, head of Peking University's admission branch in Chongqing, told the Beijing Evening News that the school admission office would decide whether to enrol the students who cheated on the exam. The final results will be released after further investigation, according to the local admission office.

The boy's father He Yeda, head of Wushan County admission office, said he regretted the wrongdoing and was ready for any punishment, but that his son knew nothing about the ethnicity change. The son said he was not sure what his ethnicity was because his grandparents lived like minority Tujia people.
Full report on the China Daily site