Matsu
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: note: hyperforeign
ipa: /ˈmæt.su/
enpr: mäʹdzo͞o
Forms: form: Matsus
form: Ma-tsu
raw_tags: from Wade–Giles
form: Matzu
raw_tags: from Wade–Giles
form: Matsoo
form: Mazu
Etymology: From the Wade–Giles romanization of Mandarin pronunciation for 馬祖 (Ma³-tsu³).
Senses: examples: text: Matsu Islands
Like the Kinmens, the Matsu Islands are part of Fukien Province. A political affairs commission is the administrative organ, supported by the Lienkiang Hsien Government. They form the northern anchor of the offshore defense line and seal the mouth of the Min River.
ref: 1959, Sampson C. Shen, editor, China Yearbook 1958-1959, Taipei, Taiwan: China Publishing Co., page 99:
text: 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.
ref: 1963, Dwight Eisenhower, Mandate for Change 1953-1956, Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 461:
text: The Chinese Communist shelling of Matsu on May 16, which clearly seems to have been a reaction to GRC artillery fire from Matsu covering a raiding party launched from Matsu against Lienchiang (FCT 8622), caused me to give consideration to repeating to the GRC the warning we gave them last spring that they should not assume the US would assist the GRC should the Chicoms attack the smaller offshore islands in retaliation for raids mounted by the GRC from such islands.
ref: 1964 May 22, Ralph N. Clough, “Letter From the Charge to the Republic of China (Clough) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Bundy)”, in Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, archived from the original on 12 Oct 2020:
text: 'As best as we can figure without talking to President Lee,' Freeman said, 'Taiwan wanted to knock that carrier out of commission, then cripple Lang-Ch'i Army Base, which is the main staging point for China's invasion force for the Matsu Island chain.'
ref: 1997, Dale Brown, Fatal Terrain (Fiction), HarperCollinsPublishers, →ISBN, page 348:
text: The athletic association is promoting the sport of kayaking in an effort to help Beigan Township develop coastal and maritime tourism by hiring Taiwan Kayak Association professionals to provide tourists free coaching on how to maneuver a kayak and enable themselves to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Matsu from the sea, according to Matsu Daily (馬祖日報).
ref: 2019, George Liao, “Taiwan’s Matsu offers tourists free kayaking activities”, in Taiwan News:
text: In the forests and on remote offshore islands of Taiwan, a group of conservationists are racing to collect as many rare plant species as they can before they are lost to climate change and human encroachment.
Overseen by the Dr. Cecilia Koo Botanic Conservation Centre, the plant hunters are scouring sub-tropical Taiwan for as many rare plant samples as they can find, from the rugged eastern coast around Taitung to Dongyin, in the Matsu archipelago.
ref: 2020 September 21, Ben Blanchard, Martin Quin Pollard, “Taiwan's race to save endangered plant species”, in ABC News:
text: Wang Chung Ming, the head of Lienchiang County, as the Matsu islands are officially called, said he and the legislator from Matsu went to Taipei shortly after the internet broke down to ask for help, and was told they would get priority in any future internet backup plans.
ref: 2023 March 8, Huizhong Wu, Johnson Lai, “Taiwan suspects Chinese ships cut islands’ internet cables”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 Mar 2023, Business:
synonyms: Lienchiang
glosses: .
examples: text: The steamer Lee Yuen, when about 30 miles from Foochow, abreast of Fuhyan, on her passage from this port to Foochow, carried away the lignum vitæ bush in the stern tube. She was beached for one tide under the lee of Matsu Island, for temporary repairs, and then proceeded to Foochow, where she has gone into dock.
ref: 1875 January 21, “Summary of News”, in North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette, volume XIV, number 402, Shanghai, →OCLC, page 47, column 2; republished as “SHANGHAI”, in London and China Telegraph, volume XVII, number 601, 1875 March 8, →OCLC, page 186, columns 1, 2:
text: 19. On the evening of 11 June, Nationalist warships YUNG CH'UN (永春) and CHENG AN (正安) and the Nationalist gunboat HAI LI (海利) engaged in battle with 2 Chinese Communist converted 200-ton gunboats, and a 1,400-ton armored motor junk in the Huangch'iwan (黄岐湾) area, approximately 10 miles northwest of Matsu Island. The Nationalist warships had pursued the Chinese Communist vessels from the mouth of the Min River. The HAI LI joined the battle in the Huangch'iwan area. The Chinese Communist motor junk was destroyed and the gunboats were damaged. The coastal defense positions of the Chinese Communist Seacoast Defense Battalion (sic) with a total of 7 guns along Huangch'iwan were partially destroyed by the HAI LI when the battalion's guns fired on Nationalist vessels during the battle.
ref: 1951 June 22, “Chinese Communist Military Activities, East China”, in CIA, page 3:
text: Now I think as far as Quemoy and Matsu are concerned, that the question is not these two little pieces of real estate- they are unimportant. It isn't the few people who live on them- they are not too important. It's the principle involved. These two islands are in the area of freedom. The Nationalists have these two islands. We should not force our Nationalist allies to get off of them and give them to the Communists. If we do that, we start a chain reaction, because the Communists aren't after Quemoy and Matsu, they're after Formosa. In my opinion, this is the same kind of woolly thinking that lead to disaster for America in Korea, I'm against it, I would never tolerate it as President of the United States, and I will hope that Senator Kennedy will change his mind if he should be elected.
ref: 1960, 55:49 from the start, in OCTOBER 7, 1960 Presidential Candidates Debate, US Vice President Richard M. Nixon (actor), C-SPAN:
text: A fisherman on the offshore island of Matsu caught more than 35,000 kilograms of sea crabs Dec. 13, breaking a record for one day which has stood for 10 years, military sources said.
. . .
Crabs are currently in season at Matsu, a few miles off shore from the Chinese Communist-held mainland and were previously being sold at NT$10 (about US$0.26) per kilogram.
A spokesman for the Matsu Defense Command said Wang's surprise catch helped to bring the price down to NT$8 per kilogram. Even so, Wang made some NT$28,000 (US$778) on his boatload.
ref: 1977 December 18, “Record crab catch for Matsu fisherman”, in Free China Weekly, volume XVIII, number 50, Taipei, page 4:
text: I also hammered hard on Kennedy's shortsighted unwillingness to defend the offshore islands of Quemoy and Matsu, occupied by Chiang Kai-shek's forces.
ref: 1978, Richard Nixon, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 271:
text: For the new round of Chinese war games beginning on Monday, China has declared a large part of the Taiwan Strait as a military exercise area and has warned international shipping and aviation to stay away. The prospect of the exercises prompted about 300 Taiwan citizens to leave small islands around Matsu, the strategic bastion off the Chinese port of Fuzhou that was to serve as the Nationalists' staging area to retake the mainland.
"We are leaving for Taiwan to escape disaster," said a schoolgirl from the island of Tong Chu, near Matsu and just 10 nautical miles away from the area of the Chinese war games. Taiwan television stations carried film of the mini-evacuation, but also noted that a number of residents were choosing to stay in their homes.
ref: 1996, Patrick Tyler, “China Warns U.S. to Keep Away From Taiwan Strait”, in New York Times:
text: I should add a story, you know in the South at that time, Governor Barnett was sort of known as a bit of a dim bulb. And two years before, during the presidential campaign, one of the flashpoints in the debates that fall involved two Nationalist Chinese islands just off the coast of China: Quemoy and Matsu. And right after this argument erupted in the campaign, Ross Barnett was out politicking one day and the reporters asked him, "Governor, what about Quemoy and Matsu?" And he looked around sort of lost and said to one of his aides, "Them those two fellers I put on the Fishing and Game Commission last year?"
ref: 2012, 42:09 from the start, in Listening In: JFK's Secret Tapes, Thomas Oliphant (actor), John F. Kennedy Library Foundation:
text: Others living on Matsu, one of Taiwan’s outlying islands closer to neighboring China, had to struggle with paying electricity bills, making a doctor’s appointment or receiving a package.
ref: 2023 March 8, Huizhong Wu, Johnson Lai, “Taiwan suspects Chinese ships cut islands’ internet cables”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 Mar 2023, Business:
synonyms: Nangan
Nankan
glosses: An island of Lienchiang County, Taiwan, also known as Nangan.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1962, DeWitt S. Copp, “The Mudcats”, in The Odd Day, William Morrow and Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 60:
glosses: A strait between Beigan and Nangan in Lienchiang County, Taiwan (ROC).