Officials on the mat

An official in charge of college enrollment in Wushan county, Chongqing municipality admitted that his son's registered Tujia ethnic identity was fake. His son was the highest scorer locally in the liberal arts category in the national college entrance examinations.

The 29-year-old mayor of a small Hubei city is being grilled on the Internet for alleged plagiarism in two published theses. Just days back, he had made headlines nationwide as China's youngest mayor.

The Wushan official apologized for his son's fake ethnic identity. But said the forgery was done by someone else, and that too before he came to be put in charge of enrollment affairs. The young mayor has not responded yet. A few days ago, before the allegation surfaced, he expressed a strong desire to stay away from the media limelight.