An organised ring that helped people in the central Chinese province of Henan cheat their way to government-sponsored jobs has been exposed. An official investigation concluded that a province-wide exam held to fill the posts last month had been compromised by “large-scale, organised cheating” with suspects paying officials overseeing the exam to obtain test papers and the correct answers in advance, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Friday. The case was the latest in a string of similar crimes...

A former senior Chinese defence official has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for accepting over 43 million yuan (US$6.3 million) in bribes, as China’s anti-corruption drive continues it sweep through the military sector. Zhang Jianhua, former deputy head of China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, was sentenced on Wednesday by the Dazhou Intermediate People’s Court in Sichuan province, according to state news agency Xinhua. The court was told...

Beijing has signalled the start of the summer break for China’s political elite with the announcement of retreats at the seaside resort of Beidaihe. State news agency Xinhua reported on Monday that Cai Qi, the man often referred to as President Xi Jinping’s “chief of staff”, “extended sincere greetings” to various academics and scientists invited to the resort about 300km (186 miles) east of Beijing. The report did not name those invited but did say they included specialists working at the...