Background
The term "free area" or "Free China" was used during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45) to describe the territories under the control of the Kuomintang (KMT) government in Chongqing (at the time romanised as Chungking) (as opposed to the parts of China under Japanese occupation, including Nanjing (Nanking) the capital of the Republic of China until the Japanese invasion in 1937).
This term came into use again amid the Cold War. Following the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the People's Republic of China was established by the Communists in control of mainland China while the ruling Kuomintang government retreated to Taiwan and declared Taipei to be the provisional capital of the Republic of China. The KMT viewed the Communist-declared People's Republic of China as an illegitimate entity and regarded its government to be the sole legitimate government of China. Mainland China was declared to be in a state of "Temporary Communist Rebellion" (the "Period of Communist Rebellion" would be officially terminated by the ROC government in 1991).
To support this view, the KMT referred to the territories under its control as the "free area" to distinguish itself from the territories under the Communists, whom the KMT tried to portray as oppressive and totalitarian.
Prior to the ROC's defeat during the Battle of Dachen Archipelago in 1955, the Free Area also constituted a series of islands off Zhejiang, within what was then known as Chekiang Province, Republic of China. Today the islands are administered exclusively by the PRC since the military conquest in 1955.
Read more about this topic: Free Area Of The Republic Of China
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