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.

But chances are these two will not be able to get away easily, unless all the questions about their conduct are cleared. Which is part of the high price of being a public figure in present-day China. The public they face is no longer the credulous one that readily accepted whatever was fed by official sources. Instead, the public today is far more skeptical, inquiring, and, in some ways, cynical.

The only answer to the popular assumption of guilt is real-world examples, or evidence to show that the public anxiety is not justified. But, right now, in Chongqing alone, the authorities are reportedly investigating 31 cases of forged ethnic identities.

Under the present policy, students belonging to ethnic minorities living in compact communities are entitled to receive an additional 20 points in their college entrance exam scores. So there has been a steady stream of scandals where prospective students are found to have their ethnic identities changed from Han to a certain minority eligible for that special consideration. The most scandalous aspect of such stories is the disgraceful conduct of insiders manipulating the system.

If rampant cheating in the compilation of local statistical reports has compromised the credibility of official information sources, the problematic moral record of public officials make things worse.

With convincing answers not yet forthcoming from those suspected of grave misconduct, we can only hope the Wushan official did not lie, and that the charge against the young mayor turns out to be false. Or they will reinforce the vicious circle of dishonesty and distrust between the public and the authorities.

(China Daily June 29, 2009)