The Cultural Left looked to Mao as an example more than anything.
Some did, especially in the third world.
But that was direct ideological influence, through example.
But not only Mao.
Ho Chih Minh was educated independently in the European communist tradition, already of long standing - he was a founding member of the French Communist party.
Pol Pot also got his start in French Communist circles, and later by serving in Ho’s Viet Minh.