Foreign Friends: National Liberation Movements
Shortly before and in particular during the Cultural Revolution, (American) imperialism and (Soviet) revisionism both were criticised severely. As the self-styled leader of newly independent and developing nations, the so-called Third World, China supported many struggles in Asia, Africa and Latin America. These struggles were seen as part of a global movement in which "the countryside" (i.e., the peripheral states of the Third World) would rise against and conquer "the cities" (the countries of the developed and industrialized Second and First Worlds). The similarities with the CCP's own struggles during the Yan'an era were obvious.
Given China's own level of development, support for the friendly nations and political/revolutionary parties in Asia, Africa and Latin America, as was stated time and again, could only be symbolical. The support was demonstrated, i.a., in various posters, making it the most internationally oriented period in Chinese propaganda when the country itself was at the height of xenophobia.
