BEIJING - CHEATERS in China's famous civil service exams have gone so far as to put micro-receivers in their ears, in order to get answers from audio broadcasts as they sit in the testing room, the Xinhua news agency said on Monday.

One thousand people, the highest number in recent years, were busted for trying to cheat in the annual central government civil servant exam, a Confucian tradition that opens the door to bureaucratic advancement.

The civil service exams are very competitive, with 775,000 people vying for 13,500 national civil service posts.

'In China's highly competitive national exams, where chances of success are very slim, many applicants, especially the less academically inclined, are lured to cheat,' Xinhua said.

More than 300 candidates were caught cheating in examination rooms on Nov 30, while another 700 were busted after their papers were found to have 'shared much conformity,' Xinhua said, citing the State Administration of Civil Service.

The cheaters were mainly found in the north-eastern province of Liaoning and the capital city, Beijing. Those caught are disqualified from the exam and can be barred from the civil servant exams for both central and local governments for up to five years.

In an extreme case, one position with the China Disabled Persons' Federation had more than 4,700 applicants, Xinhua said. -- REUTERS