"Resolutely support the just struggle of the American Blacks!" Propaganda Poster, 1963

The title of this Chinese propaganda poster is “Resolutely support the just struggle of the American Blacks!” (Jianjue zhichi Meiguo heirende zhengyi douzheng!). Dated September 1963, the poster was designed by Chinese artist Cao Youcheng and published by the Shanghai People’s Fine Arts Publishing House. It centers two Black men, one with his arm raised and the other resisting a baton wielded by a white gloved hand. At the bottom of the poster, a quote from Chinese Community Party Chairman Mao Tse-Tung appears: “The evil system of colonialism and imperialism arose and throve with the enslavement of Negroes and the trade in Negroes, and it will surely come to its end with the complete emancipation of Black people.” During the 1960s, the Chinese government expressed explicit support for Black Americans’ struggles against racial discrimination in the U.S. Through posters like this one, as well as public statements such as Mao Tse-tung’s 1963 statement prior to the March on Washington, the PRC condemned the racist violence faced by Black Americans and criticized U.S. imperialism. These efforts were part of the PRC’s larger strategy to link the struggles of the Chinese people to free themselves from foreign influence and classism with other nonwhite peoples’ struggles for freedom from oppression. As the multilingual nature of the protest signs in this poster reflects, China sought to portray itself as the leader of a radical international movement against imperialism, capitalism, and white supremacy.