Definition of "Matsus"

A Defense Ministry communique said 40 Communist craft were sighted Tuesday off Peikantang, a tiny island in the Matsu group, but fled when the island's guns opened fire. The Matsus are off the Red port of Foochow, opposite the northern tip of Formosa.

1954 September 30, “Nationalist Forces Rout 40 Red Boats”, in The Washington Post and Times Herald‎, volume 77, number 299, page 4, column 2

The Matsus are a group of small rocky islets, but are of use as part of a defence warning system.

1961 May, “Formosa”, in The British Survey‎, number 146, London: British Society for International Understanding, page 16

The one landing strip in the Matsus, and good for light aircraft only, was on the second largest island, Peikan. Between Nankan and Peikan lay the Matsu Straits, a twisted riptide-torn channel, boasting freak winds and bouldered shores.

1962, DeWitt S. Copp, “The Mudcats”, in The Odd Day‎, William Morrow and Company, page 60

The nineteen rocky, treeless Matsus, covering twelve square miles, blocked the port of Foochow on the Chinese mainland, just ten miles away, while the Quemoys, covering sixty square miles of land which supported several thousand farmers and fishermen, blocked the port of Amoy, only two miles away.

1963, Dwight Eisenhower, Mandate for Change 1953-1956‎, Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, page 461

The Matsus are home to about 13,500 people. The chain of small islands and islets hugs the Chinese coast, lying about nine kilometers from the shores of China’s Fujian Province at the closest point. Communist authorities have always regarded the Matsus as part of China’s Lianjiang County.

2021 November 5, David Lague, Maryanne Murray, “T-DAY: The Battle for Taiwan”, in Reuters‎, archived from the original on 05 November 2021