evidence: Kinmen, a rocky archipelago in the Taiwan Strait with a main island and other islets, is less than 10 kilometres from the Chinese mainland and almost 200 kilometres from Taiwan’s main island. This proximity has infused Kinmen with a complex identity, one born of its past as a frontline battleground against invading Chinese Communist Party forces, and the contemporary close ties – culturally and economically – many Kinmenese residents have to the mainland. [...] Mark Harrison, a Taiwan expert from the University of Tasmania, says the military history of Kinmen as a place the PLA repeatedly failed to capture matters greatly to China. But while its proximity to the mainland makes it a vulnerable target, invading Kinmen would be an act of war that would demand a response from the US and its allies, and is not a step that Beijing would take lightly. [...] Kinmen is a political stronghold for the KMT, the largest of Taiwan’s opposition parties. At the peak of Cold War tensions in the1950s, when the KMT ruled Taiwan as a single-party state under Chiang Kai-shek’s leadership, more than 100,000 KMT troops were stationed on Kinmen to fight communist troops.