The political division of Táiwān and China dates back to 1895, when Táiwān became a colony of Japan. In 1949, four years after the end of World War II and Japanese colonial rule in Táiwān, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was founded and the government of its predecessor, the Republic of China (ROC), was relocated to Táiwān. Thus, except for the four years between 1945 and 1949, both sides of the Táiwān Strait have been under separate political rule for more than a century.