[pasabagi]

I've listened to a few US military strategists talk about it, and they generally say that forward deployment is a good way to lose all your forward deployed forces in the early hours of an engagement. So deploying loads of troops would probably not be a good tactic.

The other side of this is the Chinese would view it as intolerably provocative, just as the US would if China started deploying a ton of troops in Cuba, if Cuba was a good deal closer. So you'd massively increase the likelyhood of a war.

I think realistically speaking, China won't ever invade Taiwan unless they are forced to do so by domestic political forces. That is way more likely to happen if they feel already in a cold-war situation. The best protection for Taiwan would be therefore if all the aforementioned US military strategists that go on panels and talk up war just went on holiday for a few months or years or honestly, decades.