Provinces of China
The Republic of China, established in 1912, set up four more provinces in Inner Mongolia and two provinces in historic Tibet, bringing the total to 28. In 1931, Ma Zhongying established Hexi in the northern parts of Gansu but the ROC never acknowledged the province. However, China lost four provinces with the establishment of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in Manchuria. After the defeat of Japan in World War II in 1945, China re-incorporated Manchuria as 10 provinces, and assumed control of Taiwan as a province. As a result, the Republic of China in 1946 had 35 provinces. Although the Republic of China now only controls one province (Taiwan), and some islands of a second province (Fujian), it continues to formally claim all 35 provinces (including those that no longer form part of the area of the People's Republic of China).
China proper
The Manchu Qing referred to the Han Chinese inhabited 18 provinces as "nèidì shíbā shěng" (), which meant the "interior region eighteen provinces", or abbreviated it as "nèidì" (內地), "interior region" and also as "jùnxiàn" (), while they referred to the non-Han areas of China such as the Northeast, Outer Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet as "wàifān" () which means "outer feudatories" or "outer vassals", or as "fānbù" (, "feudatory region"). These waifan were fully subjected to and governed by the Qing government and were considered part of the China (Zhongguo), unlike wàiguó (, "outer/foreign countries") like Korea, Vietnam, and the Ryukyus, who paid tribute to the Qing but were not part of China.