evidence: Hainan was formally incorporated into the Chinese empire in 110 bce, when the Han government established two prefectures, Zhuya and Dan’er, on the island. However, the indigenous Li peoples staged constant rebellions, and the Chinese withdrew in the 1st century bce. Although the island remained nominally under Chinese sovereignty, effective government was not reintroduced until the Tang dynasty (618–907 ce). Even then, the island remained firmly in the hands of the indigenous peoples, and the coastal settlements established by the Chinese became a dreaded place of banishment for those who had lost favour at court on the mainland. [...] In 1906 the Chinese Republican leader Sun Yat-sen proposed that Hainan again become a separate province, and for a short time (1912–21), it was nominally independent under the name Qiongya Island. The Japanese occupied Hainan (1939–45) during the Sino-Japanese War and began developing the island’s economic potential. The production of rubber and other tropical goods was expanded, and Hainan’s mineral wealth was exploited. Roads and short railway lines were built to extract iron ore in the southwest, bauxite in the south, and alluvial tin from along the northern coast. Hainan reverted to Chinese Nationalist control in 1945 and was one of the last places to be taken by the communists.