Mao once said 'several hundred million peasants will rise like a might storm', highlighting his beliefs. As industrial workers only made 1% of the population in the 1920's, combined with the fact that the cities were controlled by the GMD, with the CCP in the wilderness of Yan'an, the CCP were encouraged to target the peasants. Mao believed that China's peasants, who were mostly poor, were being exploited by wealthy landlords, and they had the potential to be mobilised as part of the revolution.