China has been investing in the logistics of blue water sea power:
With more long distance cruises China has, since the 1990s, trained more and more of its sailors to resupply ships at sea. It’s now common to see a Chinese supply ship in the Western Pacific refueling two warships at once. This is a tricky maneuver and the Chinese did not learn to do it overnight. They have been doing this more and more over the last decade, first refueling one ship at a time with the receiving ship behind the supply ship and then the trickier side-by-side method. This enables skilled supply ship crews to refuel two ships at once.
But geography still hems China's navy into China's coastal waters.
To truly break out and operate in distant waters, China must break the ring of enemies who will, with American support, interdict China's navy. In the Cold War, we experienced that threat with Soviet-supported Cuba which interdicted sea lines of communication from our Gulf ports. But our east and west coast ports were clear of this threat.
We should keep this in mind when we consider Taiwan.
Even without a moral responsibility to support a small democracy under threat from an autocratic neighboring giant intent on conquest, we have an interest in keeping Taiwan as the cork in the bottle that prevents China from freely pushing through the gap between the Philippines and Japan to gain access to the Pacific Ocean; and using Taiwan to extend Chinese air and missile power further east.
