Taiwan V China : Is it possible to detect cruise missile launches from geostationary orbit?

Cruise missiles are like the old Buzz Bombs of WW II.   They are not ballistic missiles,   instead they come on low so you they are not detected until the last minute.    You would not fire them from a satellite as that would defeat the whole idea of coming in low.    China would not want to totally destroy Taiwan as they consider it their land.   They would take out command and control,   military targets and then invade with hundreds of thousands of troops.   If they take out the Taiwan Air Force they can land said troops in airliners at all the airports.   Since Taiwan is one of those nations that do not trust their civilians with guns,  they will be quickly over run. 

Taiwan is kept out of the news so as to not "offend" the communist mainland. No one knows its present day political attitude and if it is now more amenable to the communists.  But it seems to be another Hong Kong type situation.  If it has an independent military that still resists the Chinese communists, it is capable of building missiles that could do considerable damage to China, if that is its attitude.

If the PRC desires to conquer Taiwan it will be by economic means or a "cyber war", not by military means.

You don't need a satellite to detect a cruise missile. The radar of a SAM system or ship does the job. That's what military's all over the globe rely on for missile detection and defence. 

A cruise missile is just a long range regular missile. They're not special. You don't need something as expensive and fancy as a satellites to detect them.

Since the 70s

(or was it the early 80s?)

we have been able to "detect" the headlines of a newspaper from geostationary orbit.

So: yeah, ***if we have a satellite in the proper position***, looking "at" the proper location, then we can detect missiles launched from that location.

Not sure if we can identify what TYPE of missiles are being launched (at the time of launch) with a spy satellite. That might be difficult from that angle, but perhaps the (typically) relatively "low" angle of a cruise missile launch makes that particular sort of missile launch easily identifiable with satellite images.

China's stealth fighter capability is still in its infancy. Their current, sole active, model of stealth aircraft has questionable stealth capabilities.

It is possible to shoot down individual cruise missiles...under certain circumstances.

Generally speaking, defense against cruise missiles (and drones) is considered a "weak spot" in U.S. defense technology.

Israel has a system called "Iron Dome" that is effective on relatively short range cruise missiles (fired from 43 miles or less). Work is being done to extend that range to 150 miles. If the system proves itself at such a range, the U.S. might try to emulate it or might even purchase it from them

and

it might be that Israel would be willing to sell such a system to Taiwan

(Taiwan is about 70 miles from mainland China.)

China  would not. Taiwan will eventually beg to join. Yes, geosynchronous would detect depending on sensor