A 27-year-old official in Xiangtan county, Hunan Province, who had zoomed through the ranks of government and was promoted to a deputy head of the county, may be removed from his new post after netizens suggested his rise was due to nepotism.

Xiangtan city committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Tuesday suggested Xu Tao be removed as a deputy head of Xiangtan county and be assigned to a township level post, the Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday.

Xu was promoted from a grass-roots government staffer to a deputy county head in just five years.

In October last year, he was nominated as deputy head of Xiangtan county. In December, Xu was elected deputy head at the county's People's Congress.

The Hunan provincial committee of the CPC began to investigate the case. On April 22 the provincial committee announced that Xu's promotion did not seriously violate regulations.

It also found that promotion procedures had not been  followed and six officials of the Xiangtan city committee of the CPC were warned.

Global Times