Question

Why did support from people in the Chinese countryside help the Communists more than support from people in the cities helped the Nationalists?

Many more people lived in the countryside, so they made the Communists the stronger side.
People in the cities were confident that the Nationalists would win, so they remained passive.
In the cities, people had mixed feelings about which side to support, so they did not present a united front.
In the countryside, people were accustomed to nearly constant warfare and so were well prepared.

Answer 1

Many more people lived in the countryside, so they made the Communists the stronger side.

Explanation: China was overwhelmingly rural, so peasant support gave the Communists far larger manpower, local intelligence, food and shelter, and recruiting pools. The CCP’s land reform and grassroots organization also won lasting loyalty in the countryside and enabled effective guerrilla warfare from base areas. Urban support for the Nationalists was smaller, more fragmented, and undermined by corruption, inflation, and poor morale, so it did not translate into equivalent strength.