Drive the old and new colonialists out of Africa!

This Chinese propaganda poster from the 1950s-1970s depicts armed liberation fighters from diverse nations united under red flags, visualizing Mao's "revolutionary diplomacy" that proclaimed solidarity with anti-colonial and anti-imperial movements worldwide. The People's Republic of China provided diplomatic support, funding, and military training to Third World revolutionary organizations, positioning itself as champion of global liberation struggles against Western imperialism. Notable examples included the 1964 poster "Drive the old and new colonialists out of Africa!" showing armed Black liberation fighters, and consistent support for Palestinian armed struggle, Vietnamese resistance, the 1968 French workers' revolt, and various African independence movements.

This internationalist propaganda served multiple strategic purposes: it challenged Soviet claims to leadership of the communist world, cultivated alliances with newly independent nations in the Non-Aligned Movement, and projected Chinese influence far beyond its immediate geographic sphere. The poster's visual emphasis on armed struggle rather than diplomatic negotiation reflected Maoist ideology that revolutionary violence was necessary and legitimate for oppressed peoples to overthrow colonial and capitalist systems. The multiracial composition—fighters of different ethnicities standing shoulder-to-shoulder—presented China as the natural ally of all colonized peoples, contrasting Chinese anti-imperialism with both Western colonialism and Soviet imperialism. This poster exemplifies how Mao's China weaponized the rhetoric of liberation to build a global revolutionary alliance, though material support for foreign movements often proved more symbolic than substantive, and China's own ethnic minorities enjoyed none of the self-determination it championed abroad.