'los brigadistas chinos'

Here's a bit of recovered history for you, courtesy of Justin on twitter: Chinese volunteers in the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. The article notes that many were overage for combat and were living in Europe at the time. That points in turn to participation in the Chinese Labour Corps during world war one, a number of whose veterans stayed behind in France, where they became drawn towards the French Communist Party after China got shafted at Versailles. Deng Xiaoping was in Paris at around the same time as a student: it's basically where he got his communism from, too.