Beijing: Continuing the princeling era in China`s ruling Communist Party, the US-educated grandson of late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, has made his debut as a highest ranking official in a southern county.
Deng Zhuodi, the only child of Deng`s younger son Deng Zhifang, was named the party chief of Xin`an, a township administrated by Pingguo county, where he also worked as a deputy head of the local government.
The county has a population of over half a million and is a two hour drive northwest of Nanning, the capital of the autonomous region, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
Earlier he came to limelight when local media published reports about his visit to an impoverished village where he spent three days.
For descendants of former state leaders, known as princelings on the mainland, working as a low ranking official in rural areas has become an obligatory rite of passage to higher office.
Princlings refers to the offspring of China`s revolutionary founders and other high-ranking officials.
Deng is among several of the third and fourth generation descendants of the founding fathers of the People`s Republic that have assumed public office.
President Xi Jinping, son of a former deputy premier Xi Zhongxun, one of the founders of the Party who was later persecuted by Chairman Mao Zedong, too started his career at a village and then worked his way up.
Premier Li Keqiang is also the son of an official who worked at the grass root level in the party and the government.
Mao Xinyu, Mao Zedong`s grandson, was promoted to become the country`s youngest major general in 2010.
Deng Xiaoping, who died in 1997, was widely credited for leading China`s reform and opening process in the 1980s and negotiating Hong Kong`s return to the mainland.
He has also been blamed for cracking down on protesters on Tiananmen protesters in 1989 in which hundreds were killed.
