evidence: The People's Republic of China is commonly known as China and the Republic of China is commonly known as Taiwan. These are separate states with a shared history; China claims sovereignty over Taiwan. After the Kuomintang reunified China in 1928, most of mainland China was governed by the Republic of China (ROC). The island of Taiwan was under Japanese rule at the time. At the end of World War II in 1945, Japan surrenedered Taiwan to the Republic of China. In 1949, there was a civil war in China and the government (ROC) lost control of mainland China to the Communist Party, which established the People's Republic of China (PRC) and took control of all of mainland China. Only the island of Taiwan remained under the control of the ROC. [...] The Communist party took control over mainland China and founded the People's Republic of China with Beijing as their capital. Thus began the fight of the two governments claiming to be the legitimate Government of China.