The focus of this study was to investigate the internal and external factors that could predict the academic cheating in mathematics of Chinese junior secondary students. Total 446 students of Grades 7 to 9 were sampled from two cities of China. One hundred and sixty were from Macao and 286 were from Zhuhai. This study applied Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory to understand academic cheating in mathematics. First of all, individual motivational variables could be included in the ontogenic system, and results showed that intrinsic value and difficulty were able to predict cheating behavior, while intrinsic value, utility value, ability and required effort could predict acceptability of cheating. Moreover, some variables within microsystem related to the classroom environment, such as involvement and task orientation, were able to predict cheating behavior and acceptability of cheating. Finally, the two cities of China, Macao and Zhuhai, were considered as variables in the macrosystem, could significantly predict the two variables of cheating. Overall, students in Zhuhai showed significantly higher in cheating behavior than Macao students. This could be due to their higher levels of intrinsic value, attainment value, utility value, ability, as well as student cohesiveness and investigation in their mathematics classroom environment. Predictors within macrosystem also mediated and moderated the relationships of academic cheating and motivational beliefs or perception of classroom environment. Lastly, implications of these findings for institutional interventions are briefly discussed.