CHANGSHA - Authorities in Central China's Hunan province said they will investigate the case of a female county official whose rapid promotions have spurred allegations of nepotism online.

The city government of Changde has decided to set up a team to probe the promotions of Liu Qiong, deputy secretary of the Shimen County committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), an official from Changde's publicity bureau told Xinhua on Saturday.

The case of Liu, 34, attracted attention after a microblogger revealed that she had been appointed a vice township head at the age of 23, and after rounds of promotions, was shot to her current post in the Shimen County government.

The microblogger said Liu only has a high school degree, attributing her success to the influence of her father, a former senior official in Changde, which administers Shimen.

Since appearing on Twitter-like Sina Weibo on Thursday, the post has been forwarded over 20,000 times, triggering much discussion about the so-called "second-generation officials."

In response to online suspicions, the official from the Changde city government said the profiles of senior officials of Shimen County would be published on its official website.

According to the city government, Liu received a formal degree from a technical secondary school. She also received a degree from a junior college in 1999 and an undergraduate degree from the correspondence college of the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC in 2002.

Liu's father was the former director of the standing committee of the people's congress of Changde before he retired in 2011, according to the government.

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