the republic of china (), was a country in east asia that governed all of china before. the people's republic of china (prc) is located to the northwest; japan is to the northeast; the philippines is to the south. the chinese nationalists lost the chinese civil war to the communists in 1949 and moved the government of the republic of china from nanjing to taipei. constitutionally, it still claims the ownership of all of china, including mainland china, hainan and several off-shore islands, taiwan, mongolia, northern myanmar (burma), and tuva (now russian territory), as part of the roc, however this is rarely noted in recent years.