Despite his low-profile style, Liu Yuan, the youngest son of late president Liu Shaoqi, is a popular topic for mainland and overseas media because of his background and promotion prospects.
Last month, Liu Yuan was the subject of the latest cover story in Global People - a semi-monthly magazine under the Communist Party mouthpiece, the People's Daily - with a comprehensive profile interviewing many of his former co-workers, including farmers, grass-roots village cadres, military officers and even scholars who studied his parents.
The consensus was that this princeling - the term for a child of a former high-ranking party official - was capable and humble when he worked in Henan and the People's Liberation Army armed police.
Like many of his princeling peers, Liu suffered during the Cultural Revolution (he was 15 when it began in 1966), the magazine said. But he did not complain and, after graduating from Beijing Normal University in 1982, worked as a local cadre in Sinxiang county, Henan, as his mother, Wang Guangmei, suggested.
'Liu never put on airs when he worked with us, as other so-called princelings did,' former county leader Yan Guangliang, 80, was quoted by the magazine as saying. 'He was not a picky eater. He ate what farmers ate - plain porridge and dried sweet potatoes. He was so humble when dealing with villagers.'
When he was selected as vice-governor of Henan in early 1988 in charge of overseas commerce, traffic and safety, he immediately headed to Sanmenxia to supervise the handling of a traffic accident in which more than 40 people were killed, according to a retired provincial official.
'When Liu was our vice-governor, he toured every disaster site to visit the wounded and comfort the victims as soon as he could,' the retired official said.