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).
Administrative divisions of China
The Constitution of China provides for four levels: the provincial (province, autonomous region, municipality, and special administrative region), the prefectural (prefecture-level city[officially "city with district-level divisions" () and "city without district-level divisions" ()], autonomous prefecture, prefecture [additional division] and league [the alternative name of “prefecture” which is used in Inner Mongolia]), county (district, county, county-level city [officially “city without district-level divisions”], autonomous county, banner [the alternative name of “county” which is used in Inner Mongolia], autonomous banner [the alternative name of “autonomous county” which is used in Inner Mongolia], special district [additional division], forestry area [additional division]) and township. It’s must be noted that, the fifth level which is commonly known as “village level” is actually not an administrative level. The Constitution of China designs the fifth level as “basic level autonomy”. , China administers 33 provincial-level regions, 334 prefecture-level divisions, 2,862 county-level divisions, 41,034 township-level administrations, and 704,382 basic level autonomies.