In early1992, then-paramount leader and "chief architect" of reform, Deng Xiaoping, toured some of the southern provinces, calling for greater courage and renewed efforts at reform. Deng's famous "southern tour" is regarded as a turning point in China's economic history, leading to a whole new series of reforms.

In October that year, the CPC held its 14th National Congress, during which a "socialist market economy" was proposed as the goal of reforms and written into the CPC program.

In 2012, two decades after Deng’s "southern tour", the new helmsman of China, Xi Jinping, visited southern China, to show China’s determination to "unswervingly push forward reform and opening up".