A former admissions director acknowledged that he had accepted more than $3.6 million in illegal payments between 2005 to 2013.

The New York Times reports.

Bribery Confession in China Calls Into Question Integrity of College Admissions

HONG KONG — The children of the wealthy and well-connected in China enjoy enormous educational advantages, gaining access to elite kindergartens, primary schools and tutors beyond the reach of most Chinese families. But strict meritocracy was thought to reign at one crucial stage: college admission. To gain a spot in a top Chinese university and a ticket to a prosperous life afterward, a student needed a high score on the country’s famously difficult national college entrance examination, not a father with a thick wallet.

Or so most people thought until Thursday, when a confession to bribery by Cai Rongsheng, the former admissions director for Renmin University, called the integrity of the system into question. Mr. Cai, 50, acknowledged to a court in Nanjing, where he is on trial, that he had accepted more than $3.6 million in illegal payments between 2005 to 2013, in exchange for helping 44 students obtain spots at Renmin, a prestigious school in Beijing, or to allow students already there to change their majors, the website of the state-run China News Service reported. Among the wealthy students who benefited was the daughter of a Hong Kong businessman, China News Service reported on Thursday.