“[Taiwan] has close up listening posts on Quemoy and Matsu islands, only a few miles from the coast.”
Holy smoke! I was in grade school in 1958 when it was all over the news that the ChiComs were about to seize those islands and were bombarding them with artillery. U.S. forces were present & that never happened, but they are still in ROC hands; good to know.
If the PLA imperial dragon cannot swim far enough to conquer Quemoy & Matsu (now Kinmen), then that 110 mile wide gulf between the mainland & Taiwan is likely to remain unbridgeable.
My dad served during this crisis. His vessel, the USS John McCain, escorted Taiwanese supply vessels carrying ordnance to those islands.
Using artillery, the Chicoms sank the Taiwanese vessel in front to them. My dad said his vessel was ordered to not stop, and they passed hundreds of screaming, drowning men.