Two news developments over the past few months have put the spotlight on one of the mainland's most secretive and controversial groups - the offspring of top leaders, or princelings as they are commonly known.
After receiving an award as one of the top 10 outstanding young Chinese in Britain in May, Bo Guagua, a son of Chongqing Communist Party secretary Bo Xilai and a grandson of late party elder Bo Yibo, intrigued mainlanders last month with a speech at elite Peking University and by openly talking about his life and that of his family. What has particularly captivated the state media and the internet forums was the vow by the 22-year-old that he would never go into politics or business; instead, he would pursue his interests in culture or education. During the talk he also admitted he was not a party member and made no secret of the fact that he was the first mainlander to study at Britain's exclusive Harrow School for boys and now studies at Oxford University.
Understandably, his unusual public candour set off intense debate on the mainland, with state media hailing the good-looking young man as the most popular 'red child'.
By contrast, another red child found himself in the limelight against his will last week. Overseas media reported that authorities in Namibia and the European Union had launched separate investigations into allegations of wrongdoing involving a company controlled by Hu Haifeng, a son of President Hu Jintao .
According to the reports, Namibia's anti-corruption investigators arrested three people on corruption charges in connection with a lucrative contract for Nuctech, which manufactures and sells airport X-ray scanners. The younger Hu was president of Nuctech and is now the party secretary of Nuctech's parent company, Tsinghua Holdings.
The European Union is probing whether Nuctech is involved in unfair trade practices by selling products at unusually low prices. The two cases are not related, and there is no indication that the younger Hu is involved in either case.
But the mainland media censors have wasted no time in ordering all search engines to block any reference to the two cases. A search of the younger Hu's name in English or Chinese on Google.cn or Baidu.com yesterday returned a warning that 'in compliance with the relevant laws and regulations, some results cannot be displayed'.