The Republic of China (ROC) is a state in East Asia whose government was located on mainland China from 1912 to 1949. Mainland China was governed by rivalling governments of the Republic of China (which is considered the legal successor state of the Qing Dynasty, without Taiwan (including the Pescadores), then under Japanese rule since 1895 as a result of Qing's cession and known to the west as "Formosa"). The rivalling governments were reunified in 1928 by the Canton-based government led by Chiang Kai Shek. Taiwan (and its accompanying islands and the Pescadores) were subsequently relinquished by Japan and acquired by the Republic of China after the end of World War II in late 1945. For four years until 1949, the ROC ruled both mainland China and Taiwan. From the ROC's loss of its mainland territory in the Chinese Civil War in 1949 and the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC), until the lifting of martial law in the Free Area in 1987, the ROC openly claimed to represent all of "China".