The Political Economy of Deng's Nanxun: Breakthrough in China's Reform and Development

This volume is about the political economy of Deng Xiaoping's Nanxun (tour of South China), which was the most critical phase in China's reform and development since 1978. The first round of Deng's reform resulted in high growth through the 1980s. However, it created a messy half-reformed economy with many problems, including the Tiananmen incident. The immediate aftermath of the Tiananmen was collapse of economic growth and reform deadlock. To break out from this low-level “reform-growth trap”, Deng decided to launch the Nanxun, not just to reignite the reform but also to complete China's march towards a market economy. Looking back, the Nanxun led to the most crucial reform breakthrough, which, in turn, sparked off a dynamic reform-growth-nexus for China's eventual economic take-off.The chapters in this volume were originally “policy reports” on China, meant for the Singapore government. These reports were written based on the information available at that time, and reflected the prevailing political mood.Each chapter is accompanied by a detailed introduction that is aimed at providing a broad background for readers to better understand the Nanxun period. The introduction also serves as a post-evaluation of the events based on new information, and shows how those events have evolved over the years. In combination, these chapters should piece together a reasonably realistic picture of the basic politics and economics of the crucial Nanxun period.