WHEN paramount leader Mr Deng Xiaoping was photographed in a golf buggy touring the Splendid China amusement park in Shenzhen, it was obvious to more than the sinologists that something was afoot in the Middle Kingdom.
China's ageing patriarch rarely leaves Beijing but his southern tour early in 1992 was a gesture of blessing for the Special Economic Zones that was intended to herald a new round of economic reforms.
The following months electrified the country. Import and credit curbs were loosened and, at the 14th Party Congress in the autumn, the reformists won out over the conservative to enshrine the reforms in the country's constitution.
Tariffs and restrictions on imports were set to be freed further with agreement with the United States, the prime trading partner, after negotiations on United States Section 301 trade rules.
In a landmark year economic growth ran at 10.6 per cent, according to Gross National Product (GNP) figures for the first three-quarters of 1992. It was likely to have risen as high as 12 per cent by year's end.
Retail sales, an indicator of the amount of money in the pockets of consumers - and their confidence to spend it - leapt ahead even faster. The amount of money spent in shops in October last year was 18.1 per cent higher than for the corresponding month a year earlier.