Tour by Deng Xiaoping of southern China from January 18 to February 21 1992
Deng Xiaoping's 1992 southern tour revived China's stalled reform and opening-up program, accelerating market-oriented development and shaping the country's subsequent economic trajectory.
Key Facts
- Tour dates
- 18 January – 21 February 1992
- Cities visited
- Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Guangzhou, Shanghai
- Deng's formal position
- None; resigned CMC chairmanship November 1989
- Guangdong growth target
- Catch up with Four Asian Tigers within 20 years
- Political context
- Soviet dissolution Dec 1991 emboldened CCP conservatives
- Foreign pressure
- US/EU arms embargoes; World Bank/ADB loans suspended post-1989
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Following the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, China's reform and opening-up program stalled under pressure from conservative CCP leaders such as Chen Yun, who cited the Soviet Union's collapse as a warning against liberalization. Western arms embargoes and suspended multilateral loans compounded domestic skepticism about continued market reforms.
Holding no formal party or government office, Deng Xiaoping toured southern China from 18 January to 21 February 1992, delivering speeches in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. He urged bolder experimentation with market reforms, declared that those opposing reform should be removed from leadership, and issued memorable aphorisms emphasizing that development was of overriding importance.
The tour forced General Secretary Jiang Zemin to endorse continued reform and opening up, reinvigorating China's market-oriented development and reassuring foreign investors. However, it also entrenched regional economic inequality between coastal and interior areas, and left political reform and corruption largely unaddressed, producing a legacy that scholars assess as mixed.