The Southern Tour

A History Today Book of the Year 2024

On a freezing January afternoon in 1992, Deng Xiaoping, China’s former paramount leader and now a revered elder statesman, set off on a month-long trip around China’s south in defence of the reforms he had set in motion to open up China’s economy and transform the country into the political and economic powerhouse we know today.

In this book, Jonathan Chatwin pursues the story of Deng’s legendary "Southern Tour" and examines its legacies in the country today. Chatwin recounts the crucial debates and disagreements that characterised Chinese politics in the aftermath of the brutal crackdown of the Tiananmen protests of 1989, and the decisive influence of Deng’s journey in establishing an economic blueprint for the 1990s and beyond.

He explores a nation which has been transformed by large-scale urbanisation—exemplified by the mega-cities of southern China that Deng visited and endorsed—but whose leadership is now conflicted by the pursuit of wealth that Deng legitimised. Drawing on historical and contemporary eyewitness accounts, and the author’s own 3000-mile journey in Deng’s footsteps, The Southern Tour brings to life the story of China’s transformation into a 21st-century superpower.