An official slated for promotion in Southwest China recently faced online charges that linked her rise with an alleged affair with her former superior and raised doubts about the credibility of her CV.

Since early last week, allegations popped up in online posts that Dang Xuyan, deputy director of the management committee of the Kunming National High and New Tech Industry Development Zone in Southwest China's Yunnan province, had exploited her relationship with Zhang Xinghua, the committee's former head, to gain fast promotions to her current position.

The posts came as Dang was due to be appointed deputy chief of the provincial branch of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, a semi-official foreign trade association.

The new position is regarded as deputy city level and one rank higher than her current post, which was county level.

The organization department of Yunnan, the personnel department overseeing selection and appointment of local officials, said on Wednesday that it had taken note of the online posts. The department would check the allegations, it added.

The online charges were "unfounded and fabricated", Zhang Xinghua told China Daily. He declined to comment on the relationship between Dang and him.

Calls to Dang's office and the management committee of the development zone went unanswered on Wednesday.

According to her CV, which was released by the organization department, Dang was promoted to a deputy county-level post with the development zone in 2005 after serving as the assistant to Zhang. In July 2007, Dang was promoted to her current position.

According to the CV, before joining the development zone, Dang was a senior executive with a foreign trade company in Central China's Henan province and was based in Russia and the United States.

However, the posts doubted that Dang would give up her career at the company to land a lower-level job with the development zone, alleging that she might have invented the work experience in the CV.

A source close to the Henan company confirmed that Dang had worked for it before moving to Yunnan with her husband, who came from the province.