Editing Chinese Civil War (section)

=== Popular support for Communists and cohesion ===
In the meantime, the Communists continued their land reform programs, winning the support of the population in the countryside. This was a decisive factor in the Communists' success.<ref name="Lin2006">{{Cite book |last=Lin |first=Chun |title=The Transformation of Chinese Socialism |year=2006 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8223-3785-0 |location=Durham, NC |page=43 |doi=10.1017/S1598240800003520 |s2cid=155992759}}</ref> Millions of peasants who obtained land through the movement joined the People's Liberation Army or assisted in its logistical networks.<ref name="Lin2006" /> According to historian Brian DeMare, land redistribution was a critical factor because it linked the interests of peasants in the north and northeast to the Communists' success.<ref>{{Cite book |last=DeMare |first=Brian James |title=Land Wars: the Story of China's Agrarian Revolution |year=2019 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |isbn=978-1-5036-0952-5}}</ref> Ultimately, the Communists obtained the greatest popular support of any insurgency in modern history.<ref name="Opper2020" />{{Rp|3}}

An important advantage of the Communists was the "extraordinary cohesion" within its top leadership. This cohesion not only secured it from defections during difficult times but also facilitated "communications and top level debates over tactics". The [[Charismatic authority|charismatic style of leadership]] of Mao Zedong created a "unity of purpose" and a "unity of command" which the KMT lacked. Apart from that, the CCP had mastered the manipulation of local politics to their benefit; this was also derived from their [[Propaganda in China|propaganda]] skills that had also been decentralised successfully by portraying their opponents as "enemies of all groups of Chinese" and itself as "defenders of the nation" and people (given the backdrop of the war with Japan).<ref>For quotes see {{cite book |first=Odd Arne |last=Westad |title=Decisive Encounters: The Chinese Civil War, 1946–1950 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JBCOecRg5nEC&pg=PA10 |year=2003 |publisher=Stanford University Press |pages=9–11 |isbn=978-0-8047-4484-3 |access-date=6 October 2019}}</ref>