New | ‘How my father’s speeches saved Chinese economic reform’: Deng Xiaoping’s daughter pays tribute

Deng Xiaoping’s daughter said her father’s speeches on his famous 1992 southern tour saved China’s economic reform push at a “crucial moment” in history, as she paid tribute to the leader ahead of the 110th anniversary of his birth.

The official People’s Daily on Thursday published Deng Nan’s commentary on her father's political legacy, a day before the anniversary.

Deng Nan, 69, the late paramount leader’s second daughter, said her father’s speech on socialist market economy helped reform efforts “sail [through] stormy waters”.

In a veiled reference to the 1989 crackdown on democratic movements including in Tiananmen Square, she wrote that socialism’s credibility was at stake, both at home and abroad, after the “turbulent days in the late 1980s and early 1990s”.

Chinese people had learned a lesson from the turbulence and would move forward on the path of “socialism with Chinese characteristics”, she quoted her father as saying during the southern tour.

Deng embarked on the trip from January to February 1992, visiting several southern cities including Shanghai, Wuhan, Shenzhen and Zhuhai.

Easing uncertainties at the time, Deng Xiaoping reaffirmed economic reform and paved the way for the country’s spectacular economic growth in the past two decades.